Daily Prayer Devotional for Women and Men

Devotional

(From Scripture Union)

FAITH’S CYBERWAR

Pray

Father, thank you for speaking to me through your Word. Help me to listen with my mind and heart; use it to make me a better witness for you.

Read

1 JOHN 2:18–27

For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.

Warnings Against Denying the Son 18 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. 19 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. 20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.[a] 21 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. 22 Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. 24 As for you, 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. 25 And this is what he promised us—eternal life. 26 I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. 27 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.

Read full chapter

Footnotes ¹John 2:20 Some manuscripts and you know all things

Meditate

Consider

May our eyes be open to the truth, experiencing the spiritual gift of discernment to see any lies that misrepresent our Lord.

Think Further

We cannot read the phrase ‘this is the last hour’ (v. 18) without feeling the weight of its significance today. As I write, the world is emerging slowly from a global pandemic and dealing with a war in Eastern Europe. In both circumstances, the issue of truth and lies has come to the fore. Who can be trusted? When John used the phrase, like other New Testament writers, he viewed the whole period commencing with Christ’s first coming as the last days.1 The word ‘last’ imparts a sense of urgency and imminence. If that was true then, how much more so today?

John faces the problem of false teachers tearing at the church and he writes to frustrate their efforts. He identifies the expectation that at the end of time a figure will appear called ‘the antichrist’ (v. 18), who will be opposed to Jesus and his people.2 This figure is not Satan, but by his lying and deceiving he will act as Satan’s agent in the world. John is concerned that in his day there are many who share the features of a lying antichrist, walking away from fellowship (v. 19), denying the deity of Christ (v. 22).

John’s antidote to the poison of these subversives is powerful: the anointing of the Spirit, breathing upon the truth of the gospel (v. 20). The Holy Spirit reminds believers of the words and teaching of Jesus,3 so John urges them to remain in all that they had received from the beginning, through the words of the apostles. He is not against teaching, but urges his readers to sift what they hear and to seek the Spirit’s illumination as to what is true and what is false. We have probably never needed that advice more than we do today.

Apply

Consider taking a fast from social media for a while as you make space to read God’s Word and consider the truth of the gospel.

Pray

Lord God, protect my church from division. Give each of its believers the assurance that comes from having your Spirit living in them. Help us all to grow together in ways that speak truth and bring you glory.