Influences
When you believe in something strongly enough, you want others to believe too, right?
Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But by going out they made it plain that none of them belongs to us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and you know that no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; everyone who confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he has promised us, eternal life. - 1 John 2:18-25
The early church met in people's homes, and believer's would travel to visit and talk with the people in their homes about their faith. In today's letter, John is writing to warn members of these home churches in Ephesus that some who come do not speak for God. He calls them antimessiah's and antichrists.
They believe Jesus was not God, and the mostly Jewish Christians they visited started to believe what they were being told.
John is upset because they knew the truth, and then they were persuaded to change their views.
They must not have been that committed to their beliefs, right?
That is what John is reminding them. Return to what you heard from the beginning, he says. Don't be so easily swayed by those who seek to change your minds.
There are influences all around us, seeking to make us doubt our beliefs. It is hard to shut them off, so we need to be able to discern the truth for ourselves.
If we seek God's help, we can overcome.
More to come...