“,,,The one in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”

After 2,000 years, give or take a few decades, you’d think we’d catch on.  Doesn’t seem to have happened.  What’s that, you say?  I’m talking about deception, spiritual lies and the spirit of antichrist.  The same thing that the Apostle John wrote about.  I’ll quote him in a minute.  But let’s first set the table.

By all estimates, John was the youngest of Jesus’ followers, and the last one to die.  Banished to the Isle of Patmos (Revelation 1:9), he wrote the Bible’s last book.  Having many decades of following Jesus after his ascension, after hearing of the deaths of the other disciples, being a part of those persecuted for their faith, and witnessing spiritual conditions change for the worse, John’s perspective was keen and his concern for the Church intense.  Persecution was one thing, but deception was an altogether different kind of animal.  In just his lifetime he had seen the invasion of Gnosticism and its erosion on the churches.  Thus his letter to his unnamed but not forgotten “dear children” (1 John 2:1).

One of the claims of Gnosticism in John’s day was that anything physical was evil, corrupt and bad.  Conversely, anything that was non-material, or spiritual, was all good.  Seems simple enough.  Simple, yes.  True, no.  The underlying assumption is false on its face.  Everything material is bad and evil?  What about a stone?  Or a tree?  Or an earthworm?  Them — evil?  Assuming this must ascribe morality to such objects, and that simply doesn’t wash with the facts.  Yes, human beings are bad and evil, but not those other things.

Another problem with this notion is that because humans are bad and evil, God would never take on flesh and become human, as in Jesus being incarnated, born and alive on earth.  Not in a million years!  That would make God susceptible to evil and corruption, and the Gnostics’ god would never do that.  Since their god must stay completely “otherly”, a lot of mystery surrounded Gnostic religion.  But you can see the fallout of this teaching on Christians who trust in a literal, physical Savior who was miraculously conceived, born of a virgin, lived a very real, visible and public life, died out in the open, was buried in a tomb and returned to life the third day.  I mean, if Jesus really didn’t do all that, why have the entire New Testament speak as if he did?  Why make claims that his literal, physical death was completely effective in restoring us to God?  Why allege that his literal, physical resurrection is not only the proof of his claims, but the guarantee that we’re good to go as far as God is concerned?  If it’s only myth or allegory or symbolism or spiritual “poetry”, why had the apostles and many others died for a nice story that had no real historical connection to it?  For that matter, why had John been exiled to Patmos?

Stories, by themselves are tolerant.  Pick one (or more) that you like. Believe what you will.  But when a story is part of real history, well then, there’s the rub.  Those stories are true…and real!  Your faith either corresponds to reality or it doesn’t.  And if it doesn’t, then you fall short with God, because you don’t trust his Word.  You trust your own word or understanding, which is fatal and futile every time.

How about the second part of the equation, that everything spiritual is good and fine?  Wrong again.  And this is John’s main point in chapters 2 and 4.  In the earlier chapter he says that the Holy Spirit — the one inside you — is your anointing (vs. 20, 26).  The result of his presence is, “all of you know the truth”.  In other words, error won’t get far with you.  The liar among them is “the man who denies that Jesus [the physical person] is the Christ [the spiritual reality]” (v. 22).  That was their dichotomy; in the Savior they are inseparable.  “Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son.”

In chapter 4 John says, “many false prophets have gone out into the world” (v. 1).  Not wanting to creep out his readers, he reminds them, “The one who is in you [Christ] is greater than the one who is in the world [Satan].”  Greater in every conceivable way.  There’s no comparison.  That’s because every spirit is not good or holy; they must be tested (v.1).  And the test is the unity of the human and divine natures of Christ and the salvation that results from his sacrifice, death and resurrection.  Life and death literally hang on this.  This is not just a nice little story or mythology like Aesop’s Fables.  This is real and true, and historically confirmed.  Since Christ will have no equals, is this Greater One in you the center of your life?