of Jesus Christ’s having come “in the flesh” (cf. 4:2, 3). In this way, John accentuated the gravity of the false teaching by immediately focusing on a strongly positive affirmation of the historic reality of Jesus’ humanity and the certainty of the gospel. Although the false teachers claimed to believe in Christ, their denial of the true nature of Christ (i.e., his humanity) demonstrated their lack of genuine salvation (2:22, 23). The affirmation of a proper view of Christ constitutes the first