If you have the Son, you have the Father.

1 John 2:23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also. Obviously John wrote to expose false teachers and teaching in the early church. They were called gnostics. The gnostics denied that Jesus was God in the flesh, and therefore denied that He was the Christ. They falsely taught that God placed the spirit of Christ on Jesus for ministry and then departed from Him before He died. The present day progressive so-called Christians are spiritual descendants of the gnostics. They also deny that Jesus was God in the flesh and that He atoned for sins in His death and that He was physically resurrected. John’s statement here in vs. 23 is clear. If they deny the Son, they do not have the Father, meaning, they are not saved from their sins and do not know the true God. This verse encourages us who live to love with Jesus. We confess by living to love with Jesus that He lives. If we are loving with Him, then according to the apostle John, we also love with the Father. Isn’t that encouraging and hopeful!? If we treasure Jesus, we treasure the Father also. If Jesus is our life, then we know Jesus loves God with all His heart. If Jesus loves God with all of His heart, then we love God with all of our hearts as we abide in Him and live by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with us today. If you have the Son, you have the Father. The ministry of the Holy Spirit brings the presence and love of the Father and the Son into our hearts and into this world.