1 John 2:21

John does not write because he doubts their knowledge. But he writes to encourage them. He wants them to act on what they know. Because they know the truth, he is able to teach them more of the truth. They know the truth. They can recognise what is false. They know that no lie comes from the truth. The truth comes from God. God cannot cause error. The false teachers do not come from God because God always teaches the truth.

Verse 22

False *Christs oppose the truth about Jesus

This verse shows what the false teachers had taught. They said that Jesus is not the *Christ They separated the man Jesus from the *Christ who is God. They taught that Jesus was not in himself both God and man. This is a most evil and wicked lie. It opposes the most important principle of the *gospel. The *Lord Jesus Christ is both God and man. He had to be both God and man to be able to take away our *sins.

This lie says that the *Christ was not in the baby Jesus. It means also that the *Christ did not die in the death of Jesus. If that were so then Jesus was not the Son of God. The death of a mere man could not *save us. That death would not be enough to take away the *sins of anyone else. The person who tells such a lie is the false *Christ. This does not refer to the *Antichrist. He has not yet come (see 1 John 2:18 above). But the same *Antichrist attitude is in those who are now false *Christs.

The false teachers probably did not realise that they denied God the Father. They thought that they believed in God. But if Jesus is not the Son of God then God is not the Father. Without the Son, there is no Father. The *Father and Jesus Christ the Son are a unity in the one God. So to deny one is to deny the other one as well.