1 John 2:18–27 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. 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 and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he promised us—even eternal life. I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. 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.
“The last hour.” The end is near. Jesus is coming again. John wants believers to be prepared in faith because His return is a certainty. But he also warns that there are those in this world who will be against us and against Jesus, the “antichrists.” They will be with us until Jesus returns, trying to lead us away from believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and the Savior of all people.
John then speaks of believers having an anointing. He means we have the Holy Spirit in us. He has been poured on us and into us to work faith in our hearts and to keep us faithful. We know the truth because the Spirit is at work through the Word of God in our lives. This is a fulfillment of what Jesus said to His disciples on the night he was betrayed:
John 14:16-17a And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth.
As a side note, You may already know that the Hebrew word “Messiah” and the Greek word “Christ” both mean “The Anointed One.” Jesus was set aside for the special purpose of being the one who would rescue the world from sin and death, and He was anointed with the Holy Spirit. Luke recorded Jesus quoting from Isaiah 61, affirming that the Father gave Him this anointing:
Luke 4:18-19 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
When you acknowledging Jesus as God’s Son and your Savior, when you place your confidence in “the Anointed One,” you get what He earned for you: eternal life.
