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 Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; everyone who confesses the Son has the Father also.
Pondering and meditating: The apostle calls this "the last hour." If you knew for a fact the time was short - either your personal time on earth or the world's time to exist - how would it affect your decisions about living as a disciple? What false gods of misplaced priorities, empty anxieties or stubborn grudges would you suddenly cast off as useless and inappropriate. How can you put the "knowledge" you have to work, right now, witnessing to your knowledge of Jesus as the one Savior that all can rely upon for truth?
Prayer: Christ Jesus, how many "antichrists" I see in the world! There is false pride of place and accomplishment, relativism of truth and morals, the "isms" of race and sex and age and class, and the competing values which defy your Lordship. Forgive me for my compromise with the false gods that offer only death. Let me live out of the knowledge you have given, Holy One, so that you may be pleased at my faltering efforts at living as your disciple, and teach me more. Amen.
