1 John 2:18

The last time] RV 'the last hour.' The Apostles undoubtedly anticipated a coming of Christ in the near future as a vital possibility, and all generations are enjoined by our Lord's teaching to do the same. The dispensation which immediately precedes that great event, the time of which is known only to the Father (Mark 13:32), is rightly called, whatever its length may prove to be, the 'last hour.' Antichrist shall come] RV 'Antichrist cometh.' The hostile influence described as Antichrist is further defined in 1 John 2:22; 1 John 4:3; 2 John 1:7, as the Spirit which denies the Incarnation, and is regarded as a sign of the last days: cp. 2 Thessalonians 2:3. The term 'Antichrist' suggests the ideas of opposition and rivalry to Christ. St. John regards as embodiments of this spirit all the false teachers who had already (1 John 2:19) gone out from the Church because they did not really possess the Spirit of Christ.