1 Jn 2:22–23. Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ?
He is the Antichrist, who denies the Father and the Son. Who, by better right, should be called a liar and impostor than the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ—that is, the true Messiah, the Savior of the world promised by God, true God and true man, the Redeemer and Mediator of mankind? Whoever denies the Son of God, and consequently the Father who bore witness to him, this one is the Antichrist.
The heretics who deny that Christ is the Son of God—namely Cerinthus and Ebion—also denied that God is his Father. For Father and Son are correlatives. Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father; whoever confesses the Son also has the Father. Whoever denies the Son of God does not believe that God is Father; whoever professes that he believes in the Son both acknowledges and believes in the Father. Hence the Lord Christ said to the Jews, “You know neither me nor my Father; if you knew me, you would also know my Father” (John 8:19).
1 Jn 2:24-26. Let what you have heard from the beginning remain in you.
Preserve steadfastly and uncorrupted in your souls the purity of Christian doctrine which you heard and received from the beginning of the preaching of the Gospel among you; let the foundation of faith remain unmoved within you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, you too will remain in the Son and in the Father. If you retain the doctrine of faith and morals handed down to you from the beginning, you will remain in the fellowship and friendship of the Son of God and the Father, adhering to them by faith, hope, and charity, and after this life blessed by their vision and enjoyment in heaven.
And this is the promise which he himself promised to us: eternal life.
This is the supreme good for us—eternal life, promised by Christ to those who persevere in purity of faith and adorn it with integrity of morals even to the end.
These things I have written to you concerning those who are deceiving you.
I judged these things necessary to write to you, in order to fortify you against the errors of seducers who attempt to draw you away from the doctrine which you received from the Apostles who preached to you, or from their disciples.
1 Jn 2:27. And as for you, let the anointing which you received from him remain in you.
And you have no need that anyone should teach you; but just as his anointing teaches you concerning all things—and it is true and not a lie—so, as it has taught you, remain in him. As far as you are concerned, this one thing I ask and desire: that the Holy Spirit, teaching, enlightening, and strengthening you interiorly, whom you received from Christ, may remain in you. For by his inward light you fully know the truth of the doctrine you have received, and the falsity of what is opposed to it. And therefore you have no need of a teacher, as those do who are untrained in the Christian religion, that they may learn what they do not know, or those who have been led astray, that they may be recalled to what they have abandoned—since the Holy Spirit, with whom you have been anointed, teaches you interiorly all things necessary for salvation, teaching truth and not falsehood or error, as the innovators do. Therefore, remain firm in the doctrine you have received, in which you have been confirmed by the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
1 Jn 2:28. And now, little children, remain in him.
Again and again I beseech you, most beloved, to remain constant in the doctrine of faith received from the beginning, so that when Christ comes to judgment we may stand before him with confidence and joy, and not be put to shame because you, our disciples, did not remain in the doctrine of faith and Christian piety in which you were instructed by us.
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