be confident, that ours—and not the secessionists’—is the genuine knowledge of the one true God?” (cf. 2:3–11). John continues to focus upon the refusal of the secessionists157 to heed the instruction of both the Father and the Son to abide in faith and in love in communion with “us” (1:3; 2:19), that is, with John and the other eyewitnesses (1:1–3) and with all who believe. Modern interpreters of John too easily mistake his meaning if they fail to attend to his historical context. Unlike the secessionists,