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THOUGHTS FROM JOHN’S LETTERS

YOU KNOW THE TRUTH

When John wrote in 1John 2:18 – 27 about those whom he called ‘antichrists’, he mentioned two things that distinguished genuine believers: They had an anointing from the Holy One, and they knew the truth.

‘But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it ...’ - 2:20, 21.

‘As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit – just as it has taught you, remain in him’ – 2:27.

These verses are the only places in the New Testament where this word ‘anointing’ is used. What does it mean? God, the Holy One, has chosen them and taught them, and as a result of this ‘anointing’ they know the truth.

Other New Testament verses use different language to refer to this action of God that results in our knowing the truth:

‘No one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him’ – Matthew 11:27.

‘The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them’ – Matthew 13:11.

‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth ...’ – John 8:31, 32.

‘... the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things ...’ – John 12:26.

‘For God ... has made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ’ – 2Corinthians 4:6.

Jesus Christ, the Holy One of God, claimed to the ‘the light’ and ‘the truth’, and to reveal God the Father. The Holy Spirit is called both ‘the Spirit of truth’ and ‘the Spirit of Jesus’. It is this knowledge of God attained through the Son of God, and made known to us by the Spirit of God through the proclamation of the Word of God, of which John wrote.

But then, as now, there are those who proclaim a different ‘truth’ which is actually not truth at all. When John wrote, the false ‘truth’ he confronted included a denial that the man Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. Today, there are many contenders for our affirmation, our acknowledgement, our allegiance:

Our postmodern culture tells us that there is no such thing as ‘truth’, so we should not even look for it.

The human ideals of non-discrimination and ecumenism tell us that ‘all roads lead to God’, and that there’s ‘only one god’, of whom Jesus Christ is just one manifestation among many.

Liberal theologians tell us that the Bible is just a human book, with no more authority or credibility than any other ancient religious text. They also tell us that there is no such thing as the ‘miraculous’, denying the virgin birth and physical resurrection of Jesus, and so, like the false teachers of John’s day, denying the deity of Jesus Christ.

There are those who deny the sufficiency and relevance of the Bible for twenty-first century humans, and teach that therefore God is today giving authoritative new revelation through contemporary apostles and prophets.

There are those seeking to revive meditative, mystical faith traditions, that lack solid grounding in the Scriptures.

There are, in addition, those who downplay knowledge of the truth, and tell us it is presumptuous to claim to have and to know the truth.

It is easy, in the presence of all of these attitudes and denials about knowing the truth, to begin to wonder if some of these voices may be right.

But John, and the other New Testament writers, had no such qualms. They literally staked their lives on the truth revealed in and by Jesus Christ. They put their lives on the line for that truth. They knew that in Jesus Christ they encountered him who not only taught the truth, but who is the truth, to the exclusion of all other so-called ‘truth’.

John’s readers’ faith was grounded on what the apostles had seen and heard from the real Jesus, and which they had proclaimed (1:1 – 5). It is that light, that truth, that was the basis of their fellowship with the Father, with the Son and with each other, and which was also the basis of their salvation. His readers knew the truth. And John assured them that they did indeed know the truth.

As John understood it, any other ‘truth’, any other concept of ‘god’ that was different from the knowledge of God made known through Jesus Christ, was, in fact, an idol. A human fabrication, whether constructed by human hands, or by human imagination.

Thus, John closed off his first letter with these words:

‘We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true – even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Dear children, keep yourselves from idols’ – 1John 5:20, 21.

When we know Jesus Christ, we know the truth about God: we know who the true God is. We know God. John makes it clear: any other god-concept is an idol.

© Rosemary Bardsley 2022