Of the Church

1 John 2:18-19
“Little children, it is the last time. As you have heard that antichrist shall come, even now there are many antichrists. Thereby we know it is the last time. Certain people went out from us, but they were not of us. If they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not of us.”

"We saw that we can divide this section up into three parts, the second identifying the equipment that has been given to us to enable us to meet and combat this conflict we are in. If I were asked to name the peculiar temptation that confronts us as Christians in these days, I would say it is the tendency to despair, the tendency to become profoundly pessimistic. We are tempted to say 'What of the future? How can the Church possibly go on?'

Let me summarize this message by putting it in the form of three or four propositions. The first thing John tells us is that we must not be surprised or alarmed at such a situation. There is nothing at all which is so false and far removed from the New Testament picture of the Church as the idea that it should go on to develop and increase, so that every century would see the Church stronger than she was before, and that this would go on until you arrive at a state when the whole world has become Christian. There is no passage anywhere in Scripture to support this view. Indeed, it is the exact opposite.

The second principle is that the Church's first consideration at a time like this should be the purity of her doctrine. John's great concern in this whole section is not at all about the numbers in the church or about the fact that so many had left, but rather about the purity of the doctrine of the church. Better a handful of people who believe that Jesus is the Christ than a crowd who are uncertain as to whether He is or not and who falsely claim the title 'Christian.'

That, in turn, brings us to the next point. 'Surely,' people say, 'we should encourage people to come into the Church.' But the New Testament does not do that. It has never done so. Rather it says it is possible for people to be in the Christian church and yet not be of her. How may I know whether I am really of the Church or not? True Christians are those who are in vital union with the Church. They have life in them. They do not have to force themselves, but rather they cannot help themselves. It is the difference between a member of a family and a friend of the family.

This brings me to the last principle. We must, according to John, try to see the place and purpose of a time like this in the plan of God. How do we relate it all to God's great purpose? A time like this is one of great value to the Christian Church. It is a time that tests us. It is this idea of sifting, pruning, getting rid of the dead leaves and branches so that the Church may be purified and cleansed. And the very time in which we are living is doing that. People with false doctrines are disturbed. So many have turned their backs upon upon them because they have gone astray in their doctrine, and that is helping to purify and cleanse the Church.

'They have not continued with us,' yet we are continuing. Why is that? There is only one answer finally. It is that we continue because we must be of the Faith."