John was passionately devoted to the proclamation of truth. No one in Scripture, except the Lord Jesus, had more to say about the concept of truth. His joy was proclaiming the truth to others and then watching them walk in it (
3 John 4). His strongest condemnation was for those who perverted the truth and led others astray, especially if they claimed to be believers (
1 John 2:4). His passion for truth fueled his concern for the sheep who might be deceived by false teachers, and his warnings about them take up much of 1 John. He had no qualms about identifying as “false prophets” and “antichrists” those who tried to pervert the truth, even proclaiming them to be demonic in nature (
1 John 2:18,
26,
3:7,
4:1-7).