Gnosticism was still in its “infancy” when John wrote this letter to his readers. Nevertheless, even though their false beliefs had not yet been fully extended, there were enough early beliefs seeping into the churches. This confusion among professing Christians displayed itself in such a way that spawned sinful acts that ran totally counter to the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore, it had to be completely purged from the early church. Below I will present the very basic elements of Gnostic teaching. As you will see these false teachings clearly have the deceiver’s (Satan) fingerprints all over them (1Tim. 4:1) 

Here are the very basic elements of their false beliefs.

1.   Influenced by Greek Thinking, (Plato’s) matter is evil but spirit is good. With that as one’s pervasive presupposition, why would the Spirit of Jesus ever take on sinful flesh because matter is evil (incarnation) Spirit is good. So, they proffered that the incarnation of Jesus was that his body “appeared” like flesh, but it wasn’t real.  Others claimed that the Spirit of Christ ascended upon Jesus at his baptism but departed before he was crucified. As a result, some concluded that they could sin all they wanted because sin was part of their flesh and not their Spirit.   

2.   Some asserted that because they were initiated into the “Christian faith” that they no longer sinned (1 Jn. 1:8).

3.   Others believed that their knowledge of God removed sin as even a possibility for the “Christian” (1 Jn. 1:10).

Thus we have dangerous (even spiritually lethal) assertions. And as I stated above, these false beliefs must be purged from the True Church of Christ Jesus.

And this was what John had to clear up for his beloved (1 Jn. 2:1) readers.

Hebrews 2:14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil —