"Children, last hour it is, and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, also now many antichrists have come to be, thus we are knowing that last hour it is."
-Antichrist. Last hour. The word is eschatos, meaning "last", from which we get eschatology - the study and knowledge of last things, of end times. Fascinating subject, this. Many hours of study and speculation can be (and are) devoted to this branch of theology. And John says we are in it, the end of times, this great and fateful "Last Hour". And he declared it thus 2000 years ago - we were in it then, and still today. It is now the last hour. And John says the way we know this to be so is that there are many antichrists who have come on the scene. Many. Many who are literally "against Christ". That was already happening in John’s day.
-But John mentions first this notion of a last hour. And he mentions it twice, but this specific phrase appears nowhere else in the New Testament. Elsewhere John writes that Jesus had a "special" hour (John 2.4, 7.30, 8.20) - not 60 minutes per se but a time, a season, a divinely appointed period of significant import. But the last hour - this subject does appear repeatedly throughout the New Testament, that there is coming (and now is) a season right before Christ returns for judgment. Last days, end times - Jesus spoke at length of these (Matthew 24.3-25.46). A time right before He returns to carry home His bride (Matthew 24.27, 24.31, 24.37-41, 25.1-13) and to judge the nations (Matthew 25.31-46)(on a day and an hour which nobody knows except the Father - Matthew 24.36). A time of great upheaval and tribulation and opposition (Matthew 24.7-23). There will be false prophets and false messiahs (Matthew 24.5, 24.11, 24.23-24), and a need for clarity, to be crystal clear about the Truth and Words and admonition of the Lord (Matthew 24.25, 24.35)! Time to wake up and smell the coffee - or better, to make it, or to do whatever it is that a faithful servant of the Master ought to be doing (Matthew 24.42-46, Romans 13.11)! A time (sadly) of falling away (Matthew 24.10, 1Timothy 4.1). A time to get serious about the Lord (1Peter 4.7) - and to proclaim the Good News about Jesus (Matthew 24.14)! A great final time of harvest (time to do so - cf Matthew 9.37-38, John 4.35)! There will be (a need for) a sense of urgency, of the need for endurance (Matthew 24.13) and sobriety and to take seriously the Great Commission of our Lord, the things of eternity, the words and admonitions of Scripture, of our Lord, Who is not merely some lackey advisor. He is King. And we as His subjects - and His children - must be about the King’s business!
-John calls us children - it again is a word of tender care, but I think he’s also literally talking to children who need to wake up and quit messing around. That’s what kids do. They play. They will play all day, if you let them. And that is a wonderful thing, something which many of us adults forget how to do, but in the meantime, at this particular time, John says, playtime is over. It needs to be over. Because antichrist is coming.
-Antichrist. That’s the literal word in the Greek - anti-kristos. And this word can conjure up all kinds of dark and scary images. There is much speculation as to who this person might be, whenever he will appear. The actual word "antichrist" appears only 5 times in the entire NT, all of them in john’s letters (twice in this verse, plus 1John 2.22, 1John 4.3, 2John 7). Look at these verses. Every occurance actually appears to describe not a specific individual but rather a spirit of opposition. John says here that many antichrists have already appeared. Suffice it to say that antichrist is one - anyone - who denies the Father and the Son. Many have and do do that. It is any spirit which denies that Jesus is from God. It could be any deceiving (deceived) person/spirit which does not acknowledge that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. What we observe specifically with regard to this word "antichrist" is more of a general spirit of opposition to the person of Jesus, as opposed to a physical in-the-flesh person who will appear to usher in the tribulation (to be sure there is a rather ominous and scary and powerful individual mentioned in the book of Revelation who will usher in a 7-year period of terrible tribulation on earth - there he is called the beast, but not once does John, who also penned that book, refer to him as the antichrist). For our purposes, and for John’s purposes in this letter, antichrist is best understood simply as what the word says - that which is against Christ. It is those people - who are no doubt backed and supported at some level by unseen spiritual forces of darkness (cf Ephesians 6.10) - who oppose Christ’s work and purposes in the world as well as His people (Jesus said they would come - Matthew 24.9). Which of course means that there could be - and are - many antichrists. There are many who have stood in opposition to the truth about Who Jesus is and against the advancement of His Kingdom. Which is exactly what John is saying here. Many antichrists have appeared. He is not talking about one specific individual here, he is talking in much broader terms.
-But because it is indeed the last hour, it’s time to wake up and do more than just smell the coffee! Quit messing around! Children - it is time to get up off our donkeys and get in the game. It’s game time, not playtime, time for you and me and all our rowdy friends to start really loving the Lord and one another and our neighbor, no more of this monkeying around with 18 inches of pew once a week, a little dab’ll do ya and a fine howdee-do-ya. What would it look like if God’s children really got to loving Him with all our heart and soul? What would it look like if God’s family really got to loving one another? What will it take? We are running out of time - that’s what John is saying. And I know he’s basically been saying that for almost 2000 years, so yes, maybe the hourglass is not going to run out in the next 60 minutes or even 60 days, but there is an intrinsic appeal here to adopt a mindset of all-in urgency. But it is an interesting question - what if that really was all you and I had left? If it were a game like football, even 60 minutes would mean we have the whole game left, but let's be honest. We all know (or should) that we're not even talking about some pastime, some frivolous pursuit of perfecting the unnecessary. This is the age-old death match of darkness versus the Light, the desperate struggle since the dawn of time for the glory of the King of the universe and for souls of those He so loves. Indeed these stakes could be no higher. Children, it is the last hour!
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