We are in the last hour now just as they were then. We have been in the last hour since Jesus ascended back into heaven. There is a sense of urgency because we are in the last hour to heed the warning John is about to give. This warning matters. So what is the warning? The warning is that there are antichrists, who are described as false teachers, who are seeking to lead you astray. So who are these antichrists? John speaks of them in the plural sense. He refers to the single antichrist that will come one day in the final days, but for now, these antichrists are false teachers among the church. They are false teachers because they seek to turn people against Jesus Christ or they seek to replace Jesus as Christ. He describes them in three ways:

                       1. They left the fellowship of the Church. (Verse 19)
                       2. They have not been anointed by the Holy Spirit, so they don’t know or proclaim the truth. (Verse 20)
                       3. They deny Jesus and likewise deny the Father. (Verse 22/23)

If we have come to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ we have been given the Holy Spirit to help us discern and deny the false teachers of our day. The Holy Spirit gives us all knowledge and now we can know the Son and be in relationship with the Father.

John ends with a command and a promise. The command is to abide in what we have heard from the beginning. We are commanded to let the truth of the gospel abide in us. Abide means two things. One to accept the truth of the gospel in its untainted form. The second is to interact with the truth and let it control your thinking and actions. If the truth that we have heard from the beginning abides in us then we will know the Son and the Father. That leads to the promise of Jesus that we will be with him forever in eternity.