The Antichrists and their Teaching. Here John deals with the false teachers, who embody the spirit of Antichrist and betoken by their appearance the speedy end of the world and the return of Christ. These teachers had left the Church because in spirit they had never really belonged to it. Christians had, through the Holy Spirit, power to detect their falsehoods, notably those concerning the person of Christ. Hence John urges his readers to abide in what they had been taught, their spiritual anointing giving him confidence that they will do so, and that they will stand unashamed before Christ at His coming.
1 John 2:18. ye heard: the reference is to the Christian teaching they had received. Jewish writings spoke of the Messiah's coming being preceded by an outbreak of fierce hostility to God, sometimes concentrated in some outstanding figure. The idea passed into Christian teaching concerning the return of Christ (2 Thessalonians 2:3 *, 1 Timothy 4:1). False Christs were also expected (Matthew 24:5; Matthew 24:24), and thus the term Antichrist was applied to the malignant being (or those embodying his ideas and spirit) who opposed the Church in the last hour, i.e. the period immediately preceding Christ's return.
1 John 2:20 a. He refers to the Holy Spirit which had been given them, the Holy One who gave it being God, or perhaps Christ.
1 John 2:22. See Introduction. We know God as Father through knowing Christ as Son. The Sonship constitutes and interprets the Fatherhood. Those, therefore, who destroyed Christ's sonship by denying that there had been a real Incarnation of God in Him, or held that Christ was a Divine æ on which had been only for a time united with the man Jesus, the two thus being distinct, surrendered thereby the Christian doctrine of God.
1 John 2:24. which. beginning: cf. 1 John 2:7. The belief that Jesus was Divine had been taught in the Church from its foundation, or at least to these believers at their conversion.
1 John 2:25. life eternal: 1 John 1:2 *. Eternal life, as John conceives it, is dependent upon fellowship with the Father and the Son (John 17:3 *).
1 John 2:27. The Holy Spirit granted to the readers will by His inward illumination save them from being beguiled by the false teachers. The range and truth of His teaching is emphasized. ye abide: the indicative is better than the imperative (mg.). Because John's readers were already abiding in Christ, he could exhort them (1 John 2:28) to continue doing so.
1 John 2:28. if he shall be manifested: the conditional form of statement implies no doubt as to Christ's actual return. Only the time was uncertain.