Already two of the three classes into which the apostle divides the whole family have been considered. The third now remains to be noticed, and these are the babes. It will be remembered that these several classes distinguish spiritual states or attainments. Babes therefore, while they should be, are not necessarily the youngest of God’s children, because, unhappily, it is sometimes the case that Christians remain in this class throughout the greater part of their lives. All, if God’s children, are babes who are neither “fathers” nor “young men,” whatever their age or the number of years they have professed to be Christians.
Their characteristic is, as seen in verse 13, that they know the Father; for this is the first thing they learn through the reception of the Spirit of adoption. Convicted of sin through the mercy of God, the blood of Christ has met their need as sinners by cleansing them from guilt, and thus giving them peace and confidence in the presence of God. Thereupon sealed by the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of God’s Son, they cry, “Abba, Father,” and are thus brought to know Him in this relationship. It is not now only that they are saved, but they also know that they are children, and as children they have been taught to know the Father. This is an immense, though it be but an initial, blessing; for learning that through grace a divine relationship has been formed between God and their souls, and that this relationship is indestructible, they are led on to apprehend something of what is involved in the Father—name of God, and to rejoice in the blessed knowledge that they have become the objects of His heart—a heart that will never weary in ministering to them, and which will find its joy in their welfare and happiness now and throughout eternity.
It will thus be perceived that it is not supposed that there could be a single child who did not know the Father. That there are such cases is well known; but this arises, as before pointed out in reference to the forgiveness of sins, from defective teaching, from unbelief, or from ignorance of the full character of grace. God desires that every one of His children should know Him as Father, and He has made provision that they should do so, so that if there be not this knowledge, the want can only be traced to man, and not to God. There is nothing indeed sadder than the perpetual attempts made, even by professing Christian teachers, to undermine the truths of redemption and the privileges of believers. Unwilling to believe that God is as good as He is, and that man is as bad as he is, their object is to exalt man at the expense of God, and thereby they become blind to the plainest teachings of His word. It is the more necessary on this account to assert the whole truth of grace and redemption.
The address to the “babes” commences with verse 18, and extends to the end of verse 27. In verse 28 the whole family is included. The world is the peculiar danger to the “young men,” and false teaching is the snare to which the “babes” are more especially liable, and this gives the occasion for the unfolding of important instructions, for the guidance of believers in every age. These we may now examine.
He first reminds them that it is the “last time.” They knew, for they had been taught, that antichrist should come; but already there were many antichrists—opposers of Christianity in the spirit of antichrist, and this proved that it was the last time. In Paul’s writings mention is made of the “last days,” and this term marks more distinctly the closing period of the last time—the last time being characteristic rather of this dispensation. The cross of Christ was the close of God’s dealings with the world on the ground of responsibility. Man was demonstrated to be lost, and the world was judged. But the Lord still lingers in His longsuffering grace, “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance,” and this attitude characterizes the day of grace, the last time, during which the cry goes out on every hand, “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” John, however, shows that it is the last time by the existence of antichrists—proof that the antichrist was in the background, the man of sin, who will not himself appear on the scene until after the saints are caught up to be forever with the Lord. (Compare 1 Thess. 4:13-18 with 2 Thess. 2.) The antichrists are regarded as heralds of Satan’s masterpiece; and in order to put the babes on their guard, the apostle describes the character both of the one and the other. The antichrists were apostates. “They went out from us.” “They would not have done so if,” says John, “they had been of us,” and now their going out has made it “manifest that they were not all of us.” What a solemn statement! These antichrists had once been on the ground of Christianity, breaking bread with the saints at the Lord’s table, and had now gone out, had abandoned even the profession of the name of Christ, and assumed a position of utter antagonism to Him whom they had once confessed as their Saviour and Lord. But doubtless it needed spiritual perception to detect their antagonism to Christ, or it would scarcely have been necessary to warn the babes against such a danger. Satan ever transforms himself into an angel of light, and his servants likewise assume the form of ministers of righteousness (see 2 Cor. 11:14-15); and thus often, under the plea of greater spirituality, more devotedness or a profession to have discovered higher truths, these false teachers seek to beguile simple souls. John unmasks and gives them their proper name—antichrists. This leads him on to the full character of antichrist. He is a liar that denieth that Jesus is the Christ; He is the antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. The first points to the Jewish, the second to antichristian error, and the two combined will make the antichrist.
We have then in this short scripture the development and consummation of all heresy and evil doctrine. At last all forms of antagonism to the truth will head up, first, in the denial, not that there is a Christ to come, but that Jesus is the Christ; and, finally, not, it may be at first, in denying that there is a God, but in refusing the truth of the Father and the Son; in a word, Christianity. And who is there with any intelligence in the word of God, and with any measure of acquaintance with prevailing forms of error, that cannot perceive the germs, daily expanding in distinctness, of these forms of opposition to the truth of God? Yea, if John could say in his day, even more can we affirm in our time, that even now are there many antichrists. In every shape and form the word of God is being undermined, and the distinctive truths of Christianity ignored, not so much by avowed atheists or infidels as by professed Christian teachers; so that it is now possible for a man to be a so-called minister of Christ even while he rejects the whole truth of His person and His work. The greatest danger of the present moment is found in the pulpits of Christendom. For the time they are with us—with us only, because Christendom itself is fast becoming, if it has not already become, apostate, and is therefore in agreement with these deniers of the truth; but before long many (as some have already done) will throw off their mask and boldly take their stand with the open rejecters of Christ and Christianity. They are really antichrists.
It is of the greatest moment to remark that it is the babes who are warned of this danger and snare. In our day it is too often deemed a superfluous work—if not altogether unwise—to admonish young converts concerning prevalent errors. John, on the other hand, speaks plainly, and prepares them for the dangers which lie round about their path. Even a worldly proverb says, “To be forewarned is to be forearmed,” and this saying is true in every sense, as seen from this scripture. Many a shipwreck might have been spared us if the example of John had been copied by those who have the lead in the Church of God. But the apostle does more than indicate the peril; he also teaches these young believers the means of their safety. For God in His tender grace, foreseeing every difficulty, and the character of every foe that will confront His people, has provided for every emergency. Hence John says, “But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth” (vss. 20-21). And further on he says, “Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father” (vs. 24).
These three sources of defense against error are worthy of careful consideration. First, John reminds them of the unction of the Holy One, by which they knew all things. The same Spirit that dwells within us as the Spirit of adoption is the unction or anointing, as well as the seal and the earnest. (See 2 Cor. 1:21-22.) As the anointing, the Spirit of God, bringing us thus into association with Christ, gives us two things—intelligence and power. In this scripture it is in the aspect of intelligence, and John teaches the “babes” that since they have been anointed by the Holy Spirit, they are themselves at the source of all knowledge, not that they actually know all things, but that, in having the anointing, they have the possibility within themselves of knowing, and thus of distinguishing between, truth and error. In divine things it is well to bear in mind that the Holy Spirit is the only power of apprehension. (See Cor. 2.) The mind, human reason, and intellect have no place here. As another has said, “The activity of mind is the greatest barrier to the understanding of the truth of God.” Hence it is often the case that a mere child in the things of the world is the wisest in the things of God. The psalmist thus says, “I have more understanding than all my teachers: for Thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients; because I keep Thy precepts” (Psa. 119:99-100). The source, then, of all wisdom and knowledge for the believer is the word of God as unfolded by the Holy Spirit. God has in this way furnished the “babes” in His family with an all-sufficient means of discernment and defense when surrounded by anti-Christian errors. As to these they need not that any one should teach them, because, walking in dependence on God, the Holy Spirit Himself will put them on their guard, and show them what is truth and what is error. A remarkable exemplification of this occurred recently in another land. Under the guise of more light and greater charity the very foundations of the truth were assailed in a certain city, and especially in connection with the saints of God. One brother was aware of the danger, but at the outset, for the sake of peace, and because, as he then thought, the poor and simple would not be able to enter upon such questions, he kept silence. Finally he was compelled in faithfulness to the Lord to separate from those who maintained the false doctrines; and in a letter recently received he relates, to the glory of God, that not one of the simple souls, for whom he had been afraid, has been led astray; but he adds that, with scarce an exception, all the educated and intellectual have either refused to judge, or have accepted, the erroneous teachings. Like “the babes” of our passage, those who proved themselves faithful had, and have, the unction of the Holy One, and therefore, distinguishing the truth from error, were not ensnared by the plausible persuasions of the Evil One.
These “babes” also knew the truth, and consequently knew that no lie is of the truth (vs. 21). This is a great safeguard for the saints when errors in specious guises are stalking abroad. If we have the truth we may well be satisfied, and we need not to examine everything else that claims to be a truth. The Lord would spare us both the defilement and the trouble. “His sheep,” as He Himself has taught us, “know His voice, but they do not know the voice of strangers” (John 10). It is sufficient therefore for us, if we do not know the voice that seeks to beguile: we refuse to listen to it because it is a strange voice. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever,” and we are not therefore to be carried about with divers and strange doctrines. No greater mistake can be made, when we know we have the truth, than to examine an error which claims to supersede that which we possess. It may be the duty of teachers to do this in order to expose the artifices of Satan, but it is enough for the “babes” to rest in the certainty of the truth itself, and in the knowledge that no lie is of the truth.
Then the apostle, as before remarked, characterizes the liar as he who denies, not that there is a Christ, or that He is to come, but that Jesus is the Christ. And he is the antichrist that denies the Father and the Son; that is, the whole truth of Christianity; for no man knoweth the Father, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him. But—and the warning is most solemn—“whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: but he that acknowledgeth the Son, hath the Father also” (vss. 22-23). God—God the Father — therefore cannot be known apart from the Son, apart from the truth of what He is in His own essential dignity, apart from the truth of His person, as Jesus Christ come in the flesh (1 John 5:2-3; 2 John 7-9). All the refinements of Deism are therefore but infidel speculations; for the profession of believing in God apart from Christ is tantamount to the rejection of the true God, inasmuch as it is only in Christ that He has been revealed, or can be known.
The “babes” had the unction of the Holy One, and they knew the truth; but now the apostle adds an exhortation—“Let that therefore,” he says, “abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.” This is the third source or means of their safety; and therein lies a principle of abiding importance. There is no other remedy after that corruption has come in and produced confusion on every hand, than to go back to the beginning. The apostle Paul thus exhorts Timothy in the difficult circumstances of his clay to continue in the things which he had learned, and had been assured of, knowing of whom he had learned them (2 Tim. 3:7).
There is not a single error or corruption of the truth that may not in this way be met and exposed. Satan, himself is powerless against the truth of God when adduced in all its simplicity. Resting on the Word, as given by the apostles, we are on a sure rock, against which all the waves of error dash themselves only to be scattered as mist and foam. Hence it will be found that in all theological controversies the authority of human writers—the fathers, as they are termed, post-apostolic authors—are cited, or those nearer our own times, to the almost entire forgetfulness of that which has been heard from the beginning. But God’s truth remains unchanged, is as fresh and authoritative today as when it was first revealed, and is therefore the sole test of man—his systems, pretensions, and claims. Whatever therefore does not accord with that which has been heard from the beginning has to be unsparingly rejected. No plea of altered circumstances or the changed conditions of society can for one moment be admitted. The unchanging God imparts His own character to His own truth, and it thus abides through all times as changeless in its perfections as He whose word it is.
Here, however, the point is not only that the truth abiding in them, in the power of the Holy Spirit, would be their safeguard from the anti-christs who were already in the world, but there is also the positive blessing. “Ye also shall continue” (abide) “in the Son, and in the Father.” As in chapter 1, the reception of the truth, as proclaimed by the apostles, inasmuch as the message was concerning Christ as the word of life, brought with it a new nature and eternal life, also into fellowship with the Father and the Son; so here the retention in the heart of that which had been heard would keep in that fellowship, cause to abide in the Father and the Son. The maintenance of the truth, as first delivered, is of the utmost consequence, both for our own souls and as a defense against evil doctrines. Nothing produces holy affections, nothing sanctifies, nothing leads into the enjoyment of our portion in the Father and the Son but the truth, and it is the truth alone which is the sword of the Spirit. If, however, it is to be all this for us, it must be enshrined in our hearts, treasured up there as a holy deposit, that it may become the source and spring, through the Holy Spirit, of our actions, walk, and conduct, as well as furnish us with the only adequate weapon of defense when exposed to the assaults of Satan, and at the same time be the means of keeping our souls in the enjoyment of fellowship with the Father and the Son.
A word of encouragement and consolation follows. He had said, “If that which ye have heard from the beginning abide in you,” but now he adds, “This is the promise that He hath promised us, eternal life.” The “ifs” of Scripture never limit or make conditional the grace—the absolute character of God’s grace. They do set forth our responsibility, continuance in the path being the evidence of reality. Thus our Lord Himself said to certain who professed to believe in Him, “If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed”— perseverance in His word being in this way the evidence of the truth of their discipleship to others. So continuing in the Father and the Son is of necessity connected with the maintenance of the truth in the soul. But while insisting to the full on the solemn character of these “ifs” of responsibility, and while it should never be forgotten that God meant that they should search us, and be used for self-judgment, it is as necessary to press without reserve the unconditional character of God’s grace in our salvation. Eternal life is eternal life, and once possessed can never be lost; for indeed, as we have seen, it is Christ Himself; it is that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us (1 John 1:2). As soon therefore as he has urged upon them the responsibility of keeping that which they had heard from the beginning, he strengthens their hearts by recalling to their minds that it is eternal life which God has promised.
This brings out a very blessed principle in God’s ways with us as revealed in the Word. He never would have us in doubt as to whether we are His or not—that is always regarded as a settled question, if we are believers. Self-examination is never therefore enjoined with a view to discover whether we are, or are not, true Christians, but only for the purpose of detecting sin, that it might be brought out into the light of God’s presence, and there be judged. The relationships between our souls and Him, on the ground of redemption, having been established once and for all, His claims upon us, and our responsibilities as belonging to Him, can then be freely urged. But they are never urged, and we should never press them, to weaken grace; but all exhortations of this kind proceed upon the foundation of grace, in order to bring our souls more fully into the enjoyment of our privileges. Because this distinction is often lost sight of, souls are brought under bondage, by using the precepts and warnings of Scripture in a legal way to stir themselves up to greater zeal and devotedness. It is grace that establishes and grace that animates the soul — God’s blessed and sovereign grace, which He freely gives without conditions; but having made us the possessors of it, that we might know His own heart, He, in the exercise of that same grace, warns us of the dangers we may encounter, and explains to us the conditions on which we may be brought under its full and efficacious action and enjoyment. This will help us to understand why the apostle adds, after verse 24, “This is the promise that He hath promised us, even eternal life.”
The two following verses gather up the substance of his instruction to the babes. He once again leads them back to the anointing which they had received of Christ, and in consequence of which they needed not that any man should teach them concerning these false, apostate teachers, who were seeking to lead them astray. John does not mean that these saints could dispense with the teachers who were gifts from Christ to the Church, for the perfecting of the saints, and the edifying of the body of Christ (Eph. 4), but rather that, should they be assailed by antichrists, they had an all-sufficient resource, though left entirely to themselves, in the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, he tells them that “as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him”; “in it” might equally be from the word used; but “in Him” would seem to be the true interpretation. This order is very beautiful. First the anointing, then this anointing teaching them all things, and finally abiding in Him. Ah, what could lead us astray, if the anointing of the Holy Spirit were in mighty operation in our souls, if we were constantly occupied in receiving His teachings, and if we were abiding in Christ! We should then be in the living enjoyment of the source of all knowledge, power, and blessing.
Thus in verse 28, where the apostle addresses once more the whole family, he has but one word for them, after the instructions given to the different grades of the family, and that is, “Abide in Him.” “And now, little children, abide in Him; that, when He shall appear, we” (we who have taught you, and been used for your blessing) “may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming”—as they would be, if then it were seen that the labors of the apostles and Christian teachers among them had been in vain. They might in that case lose the things which they had wrought, and not receive a full reward (2 John 8). He thereby set them also, as well as himself and his fellowlaborers, in the prospect of the Lord’s return (His manifestation here, because connected with responsibility in service, as always in the epistles). Nothing furnishes the heart, whether of laborers or of the saints generally, with such a powerful motive for diligence in God’s ways as the expectation of the coming of Christ. It is this motive John now supplies to every child of the family, as he leaves upon their hearts this divinely-given precept, “Abide in Him.” Abide in Him, in the prospect of soon seeing Him face to face, where the character (says the apostle in effect) of our work will be fully declared. May the Lord lay this simple injunction in new and living power upon the hearts of all the children of God, for His name’s sake.