Saturday, March 12: Scripture – 1 John 2:18-25
18 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.
19 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.
20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge.
21 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.
22 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.
23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; everyone who confesses the Son has the Father also.
24 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.
25 And this is what he has promised us, eternal life.
Prayer Focus: New Testament scholar N.T. Wright suggests that instead of using the word “antichrist” due to its apocalyptic connotations, we might keep in mind the Hebrew form of the word: anti-messiah. Jesus warned that false messiahs would come after him. Anti-messiahs are always present for there have always been movements claiming that God was acting in a certain way, supporting a certain agenda, or promising something new and better. And Christians are a curious lot – we wonder if indeed Christ has returned in a way or place that is better or more exciting than the church we know. John warns the people to hold fast to what they heard in the beginning. Abide in the Son and in the Father. Jesus Christ is the Messiah. All the others are anti-messiahs. Pray that you might stay close to Jesus today.
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