1 John 2 v 18 - 23

One of the definitions of Christian believers is that we know the difference between truth and lies and I think of two things leading from that... 1. We then have a responsibility to choose what is truth. Just because we can see through the light of Christ shining in our hearts the difference between the two it doesn't necessarily mean that we are going to choose the Truth way over the path of lies every time. But, God has given us eyes to see and know the difference. 2. We should be much more sympathetic to those who are still wandering around the murky world. As Pilate said: ''What is Truth?'' Many today and through the centuries have not had the light to discern between the two, so we must forgive them. As Jesus cried out on the cross: ''Father, forgive them for they don't know what they are doing!'' We are children of the light, we must walk in the light. Those who once walked there and now no longer do so reveal themselves to having never been children of the light and worse than that, to have received God's grace and to have resisted its life-transforming effects. For John, this was the time of the last hour: he recognised that his life here was drawing to an end. However, we could feel justified in thinking about the last hour worldwide. In Biblical thought, this is the end of one age and the beginning of another. It is last in the sense that things as they are will pass away; but it leads not to world obliteration, but to world re-creation. And for all humankind there is a personal last hour, the final opportunity to ally ourselves with Almighty living God or with the evil forces which are against Him.