1 John 2:22-2322Who is the liar if he denies that Jesus is the Christ? This one is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. 23Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father, the one who confesses the Son has the Father.
John now defines what the “lie” is from verse 21: denying Jesus to be the Messiah. Christ has lost its power in the English language for most people and is treated as Jesus’ last name. For any Jew, the idea of the Messiah was significant in their corporate memory and longing for God’s restoration of Israel. For a Gentile, the word would not have as much significance, but it would still hold some meaning as the special “Anointed One.” Many cultures look to heroes and divine figures. Jesus went beyond both Jew and Gentile. Jesus’ divinity is an important topic in this letter, with Son occurring 19 times. The crucial confession John urges is to acknowledge Jesus as God’s Son (4:15).
Those who do not accept that Jesus is divine and came representing the Almighty God are in great error. In the first century and among John’s readership, some people denied Jesus as the Messiah and distorted an orthodox interpretation of the person and work of Jesus. Heretical groups, such as the Gnostics and Docetists, were beginning to emerge. John saw their error and so, confronted them strongly in this letter. His label of antichrist should be a clear indicator that these people were not believers, and their teaching should be rejected. John felt so strong about this when he wrote this letter that if a person denied Jesus to be the Son, that person also denied God the Father. One cannot believe in God without accepting the truth of Jesus. This exclusive statement is emphasized also in John 14:6 when Jesus claimed to be the Way, Truth, and Life.
The crucial question of our lives is this: what will we do with Jesus? Will we accept him as the Messiah, the Incarnated Word from God? Will we accept the relationship of Father and Son? Some groups today claim certain things about Jesus that are not found in the Bible (but perhaps their own “scriptures”). They even claim to be “Christian,” but their theology is wrong because they misunderstand or misinterpret the person of Jesus. John’s strong statement in this verse indicates the basic requirement of confessing Jesus as the Son of God. Without Jesus, we cannot have a relationship with the Father. In the early church, the basic confession of faith for Christians was, “Jesus is Lord” (1 Corinthians 12:3). What will we do with Jesus? We can reject him, ignore him, study him, or follow him. We must do something once the light dawns in our awareness.