The Gnostics were First Century individuals who infiltrated Christianity with blatant heresies that still today influence the beliefs and doctrines of many denominations of Christianity. The apostle John addresses a couple of the gnostic heresies in the first chapter of his epistle 1st John. The Gnostics did not believe Jesus actually had a flesh and blood body, but only appeared human while manifesting himself in a spirit body. John exposes this error in the very first verse of I John 1, writing “That (life or being) which was from the beginning, which we have heard, WHICH WE HAVE SEEN WITH OUR EYES, WHICH WE HAVE LOOKED UPON, AND OUR HANDS HAVE HANDLED… declare we unto you” (See I John 1:1-3). John insists Jesus was a real human being, who could be touched and handled, not an illusion or apparition.
Beginning with verse 6 of I John 1, John addresses another heresy embraced by these Gnostics. Gnostics taught a believer’s sins had no relevance as to that believer’s spiritual state or condition. Writing of this belief held by the Gnostics, Irenaeus (Second Century Greek bishop of Lyons, France) said, “as gold deposited in mud does not lose its’ beauty, so they themselves, whatever may be their outward immorality, cannot be injured by it, nor lose their spiritual substance.” John countered this demonic argument writing. “If we say that we have no sin (while sinning and continually giving in to the pulls of the flesh), we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us….If we say that we have not sinned (while continuing to sin daily), we make Him (our Lord) a liar, and his word is not in us” (See I John 1:8-10).
And what does John write in the very next verse? “My little children, these things write I unto you THAT YOU SIN NOT!” (See I John 2:1). John further writes, “He (Jesus Christ) appeared so that he might take away our sins” not just pay the penalty for sin, but to TAKE AWAY our sins! (See I John 3:5). “No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.? (See I John 3:6).
Modern Christianity is bursting at the seams with false converts – men and women who the master deceiver has duped into following that “other Jesus” the apostle Paul warns us about. That counterfeit Jesus has no power to deliver his followers from sin. In fact, that other Jesus actually uses his deceived ministry to teach his followers he has no intention of delivering them from sin and that all his father sees when looking at them is the purity and righteousness of Jesus Christ. He sends forth “another spirit” and proclaims “another gospel.” (See 2 Corinthians 11:1-15). God help you to understand is my fervent prayer.
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley