No Lie is of God!

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“But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth.”—1 John 2:20-21 NASB


     The way John presents this statement makes me wish that I had an Apostle saying, “You have an anointing from the Holy One and you all know!” I mean, imagine being in the group that this epistle was specifically written to and reading this aloud with the fellow members that made up that first century assembly of believers!! How powerful!! While this was clearly written to that specific community of believers (and I would urge anyone reading 1 John to guard against taking verse 20 as a life verse), we can still know the truth and what it means to be able to see who is of God, and who is of the antichrist! But, how?

     Well, what is John saying to the specific audience that he is writing to? They have an anointing and they know the truth! First thing that I want to know, what does truth mean to John and how does he understand this as an Apostle? We can find out easily enough, he has two other Epistles and a Gospel credited to him! Surely he provides us with a clear understanding of what he means in his writings.

     First, John tells us that Jesus said He was the way, and the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Jesus (John 14:6). John also tells us that Jesus said we would receive a Helper, which we know is the Holy Spirit, and Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the spirit of truth (John 14: 16-17). Where does the Holy Spirit come from? John tells us, “When the Helper comes, whom I will send you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about me.” (John 15:26) What would the Holy Spirit do for us once Jesus had the Father send Him? “But when He, the spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak of His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will disclose to you what is to come.” (John 16:13). Lastly, what did all of this mean to John? He knew Jesus. He was there. John 17:19, “For their sakes, I sanctify Myself, that they themselves may be sanctified in truth.” And this was on the heels of what John recorded Jesus saying in John 17: 17, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.”

     Now, let’s look at what the Apostle John understood! First, Jesus is the truth. If Jesus is the truth and there is no lie that comes from the truth, then clearly God is truth. Also, the Holy Spirit is the very Spirit of truth, which follows logically since the Spirit proceeds from God at the behest of Christ. Further, we know that the Spirit of truth is to help us, guide us in all truth and tell us what He has heard, while we are sanctified in truth as Christ was sanctified. Which, logically, tells us that the GOSPEL IS TRUTH. From just what we have looked at here, it is not hard to surmise that our understanding of the truth grows as our relationship deepens with the Word of God, Jesus Christ, in the word of God, the Holy Scriptures, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit convicting us as we proceed since the word of God is truth, too!

     This is important. In today’s culture, subjective truth is thrown around and objective truth is scoffed at. We read into what we want things to say to fit our agendas or our personal narratives. This is prevalent throughout every aspect of our society. We as a people attempt to do it to our Constitution, we do it on social media, and unfortunately there are some who do it from our influential platforms. But, ultimately, there is one take away from what we have seen today in examining these two verses: we can know Truth, and we can know when that Truth is being taught, when that Truth is being lived out and who is chasing after that Truth because it will line up with the Word of God. Understand, when I say Word of God, I mean, both Jesus Christ’s example and what is written in the Bible.

Until Next Time
God Bless

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