1 John 2:18-22

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 1 John 2:18-19

Here is, I. A moral prognostication of the time; the end is coming: Little children, it is the last time, 1 John 2:18. Some may suppose that the apostle here addresses the first rank of Christians again; the juniors are most apt to be seduced, and therefore, ?Little children, you that are young in religion, take heed to yourselves that you be not corrupted.? But it may be, as elsewhere, a universal appellation, introductive of an alarm to all Christians: ?Little children, it is the last time;... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 1 John 2:20-27

Here, I. The apostle encourages the disciples (to whom he writes) in these dangerous times, in this hour of seducers; he encourages them in the assurance of their stability in this day of apostasy: But you have an unction from the Holy One, and you know all things. We see, 1. The blessing wherewith they were enriched?an unguent from heaven: You have an unction. True Christians are anointed ones, their name intimates as much. They are anointed with the oil of grace, with gifts and spiritual... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - 1 John 2:18

2:18 Little children, it is the time of the last hour; and now many antichrists have risen, just as you heard that Antichrist was to come. That is how we know that it is the time of the last hour. It is important that we should understand what John means when he speaks of the time of the last hour. The idea of the last days and of the last hour runs all through the Bible; but there is a most interesting development in its meaning. (i) The phrase occurs frequently in the very early books... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - 1 John 2:18

In this verse we meet the conception of Antichrist. Antichrist is a word which occurs only in John's letters in the New Testament ( 1 John 2:22 ; 1 John 4:3 ; 2 John 1:7 ); but it is the expression of an idea which is as old as religion itself. From its derivation Antichrist can have two meanings. Anti ( Greek #473 ) is a Greek preposition which can mean either against or in place of. Strategos ( Greek #4755 ) is the Greek word for a commander, and antistrategos can mean either... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - 1 John 2:18

John has a view of Antichrist which is characteristically his own. To him the sign that Antichrist is in the world is the false belief and the dangerous teaching of the heretics. The Church had been well forewarned that in the last days false teachers would come. Jesus had said, "Many will come in my name, saying, I am he; and they will lead many astray" ( Mark 13:6 ; compare Matthew 24:5 ). Before he left them, Paul had warned his Ephesian friends: "After my departure fierce wolves will... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - 1 John 2:19-21

2:19-21 They have gone out from among us but they are not of our number. If they had been of our number, they would have remained with us. But things have happened as they have happened, that it may be clearly demonstrated that all of them are not of us. But you have received anointing from the Holy One and you all possess knowledge. I have not written this letter to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. As things have... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - 1 John 2:22-23

2:22-23 Who is the liar but the man who denies that Jesus is the Anointed One of God? Antichrist is he who denies the Father and the Son. Anyone who denies the Son does not even have the Father; and everyone who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. As someone has put it, to deny that Jesus is the Christ is the master lie, the lie par excellence; the lie of all lies. John says that he who denies the Son has not the Father either. What lies behind that saying is this. The false... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 John 2:18

Little children, it is the last time ,.... Or hour; not of the Jewish civil and church state, for that had been at an end for some time; this epistle was written some years after the destruction of Jerusalem; nor the last hour of the Gospel dispensation, or world to come, for this was but the first age of that; and much less the last hour of time, or of the present world itself, for that has been many hundreds of years since; but the last hour of the apostolic age. All the apostles were now... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 John 2:19

They went out from us ,.... Which intends not the persons that went down from Judea to Antioch, Acts 15:1 , who preached destructive doctrines to the Gentiles, which the apostles and the church of Judea disowned and censured; by which it appeared, that all the preachers of these doctrines were not of them, and of the same mind with them: for this sense makes these antichrists to be only preachers; whereas, though many of them might be such, yet not all; for whoever, in a private capacity... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 John 2:20

But ye have an unction from the Holy One ,.... Meaning the Spirit, and his graces, with which Christ, the head, is anointed without measure, and his members in measure; from whence he is called Christ, and they Christians. These were really the Lord's anointed ones; they were true believers; were the wise virgins who had oil in their vessels with their lamps, which would never go out. The grace of the Spirit is called a chrism, or an ointment, or an anointing, in allusion to the anointing... read more

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