This week in our Rooted in Christ we are going to be looking deeper at 1 John 2: 18-29.  Today we are going to look at the World in Front of the Text for this passage, focusing on the first verses.

I think that there are a couple of things that this passage calls us to pay special attention to.  I think it is such an important concept to think about evil not just in the form of one, big, bad guy like in a video game that you have to defeat.  Now, I want to be very clear, I believe in a literally fallen angel named Lucifer who is the Devil, or Satan, the names he is called in Scripture. I don’t believe that he is simply a metaphor for evil, but an actual, tangible entity.  Now, the devil is not God’s equal, he is a created being. But, he is real, not just an allegory.

And as dangerous as he is, as dangerous as the antichrist is, John warns us about something just as dangerous. The small insidious evil that is diffused and everywhere, and honestly, everywhere.  This evil rejects Jesus, rejects truth, rejects the correct teaching as laid out in Christan and as passed down through the teachings of the Apostles and through the Church.  This means that we have to be watching not just for the big bad guy, but looking for the evil that lay within each of us.

Those who are now opposing the church and opposing Christ went out from among them.  Meaning that at one time they were part of the community.  We have to look within us to make sure that we are guarding our hearts against evil, pride, all these things that can draw us away from Jesus.  Evil isn’t just a metaphor out there, but instead, its something close by, lurking, seeking to destroy us, and destroy others.

These antichrists didn’t guard themselves against evil and they fell. Let that be a lesson to us. Guard your heart and life from evil, from untruth, from these things.  Evil isn’t just out there.  It’s always close. Be careful and stick close to Jesus.

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