Yesterday, John told us about the importance of love in the Christian life. Today, we find another equally important emphasis – the need to cling to the truth about Christ.

And this makes perfect sense. After all, how can you love anyone without knowing him or her? So, how can we possibly love Jesus without knowing the truth about Him?

And that truth is truly amazing. In verse 22, John reminds us that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the ruler God promised would come to reign over all the earth. He also reminds us that Jesus is the Son of God, and that if we want to have a relationship with God, we must first draw close to Jesus.

But how can we be sure all these things are true? At the beginning of this letter, John points to his own eyewitness testimony, and that’s a great place to start. Jesus Himself said that all the Scriptures testify about Him, predicting and explaining the way He would save the world by dying for all His people and rising from the dead.

But John says there is another witness to the truth of Christ – the Holy Spirit who lives within all those who belong to Jesus. He helps us understand the Word of God when we read it, and He gives us the certainty we need to believe the Word and live according to it.

So, in this new year, let’s all resolve to spend more time in God’s Word. But let’s also pray that God would fill us with His Holy Spirit so that that Word might bear fruit in our lives, and so that we might be drawn into a closer relationship with God.

I John 2:20-27 (ESV)

20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.
21 I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth.
22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.
23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.
24 Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.
25 And this is the promise that he made to us– eternal life.
26 I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.
27 But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie– just as it has taught you, abide in him.