18 Little youths, it is the last hour; and even as ye heard that the antichrist doth come, even now antichrists have become many—whence we know that it is the last hour; 19 out of us they went forth, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but—that they might be manifested that they are not all of us.
20 And ye have an anointing from the Holy One, and have known all things; 21 I did not write to you because ye have not known the truth, but because ye have known it, and because no lie is of the truth. 22 Who is the liar, except he who is denying that Jesus is the Christ? this one is the antichrist who is denying the Father and the Son; 23 every one who is denying the Son, neither hath he the Father, 'he who is confessing the Son hath the Father also.'
Matthew Henry's Commentary on 1 John 2:18-23
Commentary on 1 John 2:18-23
(Read 1 John 2:18-23)
Every man is an antichrist, who denies the Person, or any of the offices of Christ; and in denying the Son, he denies the Father also, and has no part in his favour while he rejects his great salvation. Let this prophecy that seducers would rise in the Christian world, keep us from being seduced. The church knows not well who are its true members, and who are not, but thus true Christians were proved, and rendered more watchful and humble. True Christians are anointed ones; their names expresses this: they are anointed with grace, with gifts and spiritual privileges, by the Holy Spirit of grace. The great and most hurtful lies that the father of lies spreads in the world, usually are falsehoods and errors relating to the person of Christ. The unction from the Holy One, alone can keep us from delusions. While we judge favourably of all who trust in Christ as the Divine Saviour, and obey his word, and seek to live in union with them, let us pity and pray for those who deny the Godhead of Christ, or his atonement, and the new-creating work of the Holy Ghost. Let us protest against such antichristian doctrine, and keep from them as much as we may.