They went out from us, &c.— It is one mark of antichrist, that he had once been in the bosom of the church, and a Christian at least in profession. There were some judaizing Christians, who went down from Judea to Antioch, and assured the Gentile Christians there, that unless they were circumcised according to the law of Moses, they could not be saved; and the apostles, elders, and brethren, writing to the Gentile converts concerning those deceivers, say, (Acts 15:24.) They went out from us, and have troubled you with their doctrine; but we sent them not. Whether the false teachers, against whom St. John is here warning the Christians, went out pretending a commission from the apostles, does not appear; but St. John writes to obviate such difficulties as these: "What! Does the Christian church breed such pests, or does she nourish them in her bosom? Did not these men learn their Christianity from the apostles and true Christians? Did they not frequent their company, and communicate with them; and, as such, may we not hearken to them?"—To such difficulties St. John answers, "Yes, they went out from us; but, before they forsook us, they were not of the number of the true Christians; if they had been so, they would have remained with us; but their forsaking us has had this good consequence, to make it manifest to you, and to all the world, that they do not any of them belong to us. This will free us from the reproach which the unbelieving Jews and Heathens might cast upon us, because of the behaviour of these false teachers, and ought to prevent your paying any regard to them." See John 6:66. Acts 20:30. The church of Rome would gladly represent the heretics, as they call them, (that is, the Protestants,) in going out from them, to be as criminal as the false teachers were in going out from the apostles and true Christians. But the two cases are not at all parallel; for the Protestants left the church of Rome, because that corrupt church had forsaken the apostles, departed from the scriptures, and left the pure doctrine of the gospel, to which the Protestants have returned.
Related Commentaries of 1 John 2:19
1 John 2:19
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.