Continue With Us (1 John 2:19)

“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.” (1 John 2:19)

As good Southern folk, we err on the side of kindness by assuming that everyone who walks in on a Sunday morning is walking with God. However, the church is porous. Sometimes, people waltz in who are not of us, who walk in the darkness, who are in love with the world. As Harry Reeder has pointed out, Satan’s favorite tactics are intimidation, imitation, and infiltration. This last tactic is the one in which John has in mind. Antichrists infiltrate our church with ease, and we only see their true colors once they walk away. Was this not true for Cain? For years, he was cradled in the arms of the nascent church; however, his true colors shined in their destructive display only after he struck down his own brother (1 John 3:12). Examples could be multiplied to no end, for the church is porous and has always been infiltrated by those who were not “of us.”

In these moments, our faith can be greatly shaken. To see one who was once among us walk away strikes at the heart with the ferocity of a thousand enemies. How are we to stand in such moments? How are we to persevere when those who seemed greater than us have walked away? The answer is found in a little word – “continue.” Many men who have fallen into grave moral failure and have walked away from the church admit that their first failure was not continuing with Christ. Their devotional lives plummeted and their sinful proclivities skyrocketed. Our ability to persevere in this day and age does not come from the strength of our grit nor the sweat of our brow; it comes from our dear Savior. In the ordinary means of grace, he gives to us Himself. If only we would allow him to strengthen us through his living word, to replenish us through prayer, and to feed us through his supper, we would continue with him though a thousand fall at our left and a thousand more at our right. When the day comes that he separates the wheat from the chaff, when the church consists of only those who continue with him in eternity, it will be because we have continued “to abide in the Son and the Father” (1 John 2:24).