I have not written to you as to them that know not the truth, but as to them that know it: and that no lie is of the truth.
ουκ εγραψα υμιν οτι ουκ οιδατε την αληθειαν αλλ οτι οιδατε αυτην και οτι παν ψευδος εκ της αληθειας ουκ εστιν
10 Church Fathers comment on this verse
He speaks as though saying: Why do I reason with you about this as if you did not know it? No, you yourselves know it. For at holy baptism you received the sacred anointing, and through it the Holy Spirit. If this is so, know that I have written to you about this not as to those ignorant, but as to those who know that this is the last hour, that antichrists are acting powerfully, and that all are full of falsehood.
Falsehood, then, is not when the truth is concealed by silence, but when one speaks and utters what is untrue.
You know the truth of faith and life, because you have been taught through the anointing of the Spirit. You have no need for anyone to teach you anything. Only stand firm in what you have already received. We were warned how to recognize the Antichrist. Christ said: "I am the truth" (Jn 14:6). Therefore every liar is not of Christ.
Thus St. John shows why he does not write at greater length, but offers only brief instructions. He says that he writes to those who know the truth and have no need for it to be unfolded in detail.
"But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things." You are true Christians, anointed by the Holy Spirit, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption (Eph 4:30). You share in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
By the power of this anointing you know all that must be known for salvation. You know how to distinguish saving truths from error and deception. You know how always to preserve the true faith and avoid every false teaching and destructive sin.
In the idea of anointing, the Apostle joins two things. First, he means the action of the Holy Spirit, by which all believers are anointed in the mystery of chrismation. Second, he means the knowledge believers have already acquired and continue to acquire.
They receive this with the help of the word of God and oral Christian instruction (v. 24). While abiding in the Church, they must always preserve it, aided by the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, assuming that Christians have been anointed by the Holy Spirit through the merits of Christ the Savior, the Apostle continues: "I have written to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth."
I have not written in order to present you with a detailed doctrine of the truths of the right faith, as though until now you did not know this teaching. No, I have written because, having an anointing from the Holy One, you know this teaching of truth.
You also know that every lie, or every false teaching spread by false teachers, does not proceed from the true faith or from within the holy Church, whose Head is Jesus Christ. I only remind you, as those who know the true teaching, to beware of false teachers.
Continuing his discourse, the Apostle reveals still more clearly before the eyes of the faithful the meaning of their calling and his own understanding of them. Without hesitation he declares that he speaks with them not as with the ignorant, but as with those who know the truth.
"I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it." The Apostle is convinced, and they know, that true followers of Christ cannot depart from the right path, the path of the Lord's commandments.
The word of truth is always in their mouth, and all their works are right. False followers, by contrast, have not held fast the confession of unwavering hope (Heb 10:23). They "flatter with their tongues" (Ps 5:9).
They are crooked in their ways, strangers to faith and hope in the living and true God. By this very thing they are exposed as not belonging to the Lord's fold, nor to the sheep of His pasture (Jn 10:16).
How should one understand the words, "you know all things," if shortly before this it was said that only the fathers, and not the children or young men, had known the One without beginning? If all in the Church know all things equally, what is the advantage of the fathers?
If their advantage is that they have known the One without beginning, does it not follow that others do not yet possess this advantage? We must acknowledge that when the Apostle says, "you have an anointing" and "you have no need that anyone teach you," he means by "you" the whole local Church.
He does not mean each individual member separately, for among its members there were also children. The Church truly knows all things, because within her there are those who know and are able to teach others.
There are also those who do not know, yet are ready to learn from those who know, according to their ability and receptivity. The knowledge of some is ascribed to all because of the universal and inseparable unity.
The ignorance of some is passed over in silence. It will be replaced by knowledge that does not come from outside, but abides within the Church.
The words, "you have no need that anyone teach you," must be understood in relation to those false teachers who left the Church, or who were never in her. They strive to bring into the Church their falsely named truth and their falsely named reason.
The holy Apostle warns against them when he says: you have no need that anyone, meaning someone coming from outside, a stranger to Christ's fold, should teach you. In the same way he warned above against the antichrists.
According to him, "they went out from us, but they were not of us" (v. 19). Members of Christ's Church must certainly beware not of their own teachers, but of these outsiders and impious men.
After this, the "anointing from the Holy One" should not be understood as the anointing proper to each believer individually, given in the second mystery, chrismation. Rather, it means the Holy Spirit who abides in the Church and instructs her pastors to rightly divide the word of truth.
If one understood here the anointing given to each person separately, it would follow that it had already taught everyone. Then there would be no distinction between children and fathers.
But if one understands the Spirit dwelling in the whole fullness of the Church, then it is clear that, while teaching the whole Church, He diversifies His gifts among her individual members. He divides operations and ministries (1 Cor 12:4-11).
"I have written to you." It is as though he says: "Why do I reason with you about this, as if you did not know it? No, you yourselves know it. For in holy baptism you received an anointing, and through it the Divine Spirit. If this is so, know that I have written to you about this not as to those who do not know, but as to those who do know" (Theophylact).
"I have written to you" concerning the antichrists, deceivers, or false teachers, not in order to present a detailed teaching on the truths of the right faith. Nor is it to argue with false teachers, as though you did not know the true teaching.
No, you know it through the spiritual gift from the Holy Spirit. I only confirm what you received in the spiritual anointing and what you know. You also know that every lie is not of the truth.
The matter is not an error in teaching, but falsehood, a deliberate and deceptive false teaching. It is the complete opposite of truth. The Lord Himself directly showed where the source of falsehood is, and who is its author, or father (cf. Jn 8:44).
Truth is from God, for God is truth. Falsehood is from the devil, who did not stand in the truth and became the father of falsehood.
"I have written to you," concerning the forerunners of antichrist, the false teachers, "not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it" (1 Jn 2:21). In that case, it would seem there was no need to write.
The Apostle's thought and turn of speech are exactly like those of a father and teacher. When he impresses something upon his children and disciples, or warns them against something, he speaks briefly after several earlier conversations: "This you ought already to know. There is no further need to explain it to you in detail."
"And also," the Apostle adds, "you know that no lie is of the truth" (1 Jn 2:21). That is, you not only know the truth in its purity. You can also recognize and expose the falsehood opposed to it, with all its cunning devices.
By this addition the Apostle awakens and sharpens the Christians' attention toward the crafty words of antichrist's collaborators, that is, the false teachers.
In stating the purpose of the Epistle, the same thought appears concerning the inward self-witness of Christians to the truth. But the Apostle sets it forth in order to show that true Christians cannot but remain in the teaching which they received from the beginning as true. For this reason, soon afterward, the Apostle directly exhorts Christians to remain in the teaching they have received. See verses 24 and especially 27, where the thought of verse 20 is repeated.
To remain in communion with God, one must not only renounce attachment to the goods of this world. One must also shun false teachers, the antichrists, who are opponents of Christ.
The Apostle does not set forth the errors of the false teachers in detail, because he says: "You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things." By "anointing from the Holy One," the Apostle means the imparting of the gifts of the Holy Spirit to believers in the mystery of chrismation.
At the same time, he means the knowledge believers receive when they enter the Church and accept the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This knowledge is enough to distinguish falsehood from truth. One need only abide in the teaching taught by "this anointing."
Therefore the Apostle does not enter into details. He points only to the surest and most decisive mark of false teaching. "Who is the liar, if not he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, who denies the Father and the Son."
In other words, the liar, false teacher, and antichrist in the general sense is the one who denies or distorts the teaching concerning the divine or human nature of Jesus Christ. Such a man does not acknowledge that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the Son of God and Savior of the world, the God-man, consubstantial with God the Father.
The Apostle's form of expression means that such a man is not merely a liar, but the liar above all others: "Who is the liar, if not he who denies?" There may be liars of various kinds, who deny or distort one teaching or another, one dogma or another.
But the one who denies or distorts the fundamental and essentially important teaching concerning the God-manhood of Jesus Christ denies the chief cornerstone in the building of the Church. He is the liar above all others, a liar of liars, an antichrist or a son of antichrist.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 21 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS