Chapter 2 (NIV–the verses in this chapter were taken from this version. Each chapter will be from a different version to avoid copyright issues.)
v. 27, As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.
(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “They needed to remain … in Him (the pronoun can refer to the anointing) and rely fully on His continuing instruction.”
(Life) “Christ had promised to send the Holy Spirit to teach his followers and to remind them of all that Christ had taught (John 14:26). … To stay true to Christ, we must follow his Word and his Spirit. … John uses this same idea in John 15:5, where he speaks of Christ as the vine and his followers as the branches.”
(ESV) “Yet by writing this letter, John is obviously teaching them. He means rather, that they have no need for any instruction that diverges from the gospel message.”
(Wiersbe) “This does not deny the office of human teachers in the church (Eph. 4:11-12), but it means that under the guidance of the Spirit we must test the teaching as we search the Bible for ourselves (see Acts 17:11).”
(Recovery) “all things refers to all things concerning Christ. … The teaching of the anointing concerning these things keeps us that we may abide in Him.”
FIRST JOHN 2 MEDITATION v. 27. (First take.)
John mentions the “anointing that you received from him” that “abides in you,” such that no one needs to teach them. This tells us that the readers are mature believers. We usually can’t say this of new believers. New believers need the gifts God gave us of teachers, prophets, evangelists, and more to help us understand the things of God. Yet, mature believers still take advantage of teachers’ insights into old things, making them fresh again, and reminding them of precious truths.
The anointing we received from Jesus after His ascension is the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we can tell something is wrong when the person we are with reacts more strongly than we do against something. Then we realize we missed something that should have put us on guard. The Spirit can put us on guard by His response or guidance in us regarding something we’re engaged in or what we’ve heard. This would include words from the antichrists who deny the Father and the Son, whether spoken outright or subtly.
John wants us to take hold of the foundational truths we’ve heard in the beginning years of our Christian life (v. 24). This lets the doctrine go from head to heart so we are judging life from the perspective of those truths, and we’ll remain in fellowship with God (abide in Him). God does not live in us if our thoughts are full of lies; that’s our thinking, not the thinking of God in us. When the truths of God remain in us, making their home in us, then we’ll mirror God’s thoughts. We will continue life where we have unbroken fellowship with God. So getting a good grasp on who the Son is will establish our own identity, one of dependence on God and one that enjoys His life working through us.
This abiding in the Father and Son, John says, is eternal life—“this is the promise” (v. 25). The promise of eternal life is therefore tied in with our relationship with God’s Word and God’s life in us. If we are not interested in His Word, we are not interested in furthering eternal life. One depends on the other. Hear what Jesus says: “He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12:25). God intends that we get rid of things from the world that prevents our fellowship with God from deepening. And from John 17:3, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” “This is” eternal life: abiding in the Father and the Son, which is knowing God and Christ in a deeper way.
John tells us to abide in God to preserve the relationship with God that we’ve cultivated. Paul wrote to Timothy the same thing, “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses” (1 Timothy 6:12). To “lay hold on” is to take possession of. This language sounds like abiding, where His Word makes its home in you, as if it belongs there and is cherished and defended there. We want to grow in our relationship with God this way.
“These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:13). We are not to simply believe in some doctrines about eternal life, but know the life working its way in our thoughts, intentions, and behavior, of a faith that works in love. Eternal life is a life lived well with God, not an idea that merely stays in our minds.
Again, these concepts in John’s letter tell me that it was written to those who have some familiarity with this eternal life, and warns them about losing that precious relationship through certain ideas brought in by antichrists that can erode that fellowship and joy.
FIRST JOHN 2 MEDITATION v. 27. (Another take)
“…and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him” (1 John 2:27).
The Spirit teaches us to abide in Him, God. At 67 years old, having followed the Lord since my early 20s, I am in a better place to understand what John’s first epistle is about. Abiding in Him includes keeping the fellowship with the Father and the Son unbroken and meaningful and fresh.
I think such passages as “Rejoice always” and “pray without ceasing” and “in everything give thanks” and “whatsoever things are lovely,… are of good report,… think on these things,” are all practices to be mindful of the Lord that we may abide in Him and not let the enemy take over. Many distractions prod and push us to topple our relationship. In the midst of those pressures, rejoice; in the times of temptations, pray; in seasons of worry, think on whatever things are lovely. There’s a reason to maintain the fellowship. It maintains life and joy. It keeps the branch plugged into the Vine.
In the new creation, all things are about God (2 Cor. 5:17-18). The old creation, therefore, was all about me, myself and I—our favorite subject, right? Our minds need to be renewed in knowledge (Col. 3:10, Rom. 12:2) so the Word gets a foothold and guides our thoughts and actions. John wants that Word to abide in us, to make its home in us in the sense that the former occupant has been evicted. The old thought patterns do not apply in the Kingdom of the Son of His love.
Jesus Christ is the King in His kingdom. All must revolve around Him. All must eventually be subject to the Son, so we aim our efforts to partner with the Lord in this. “Whatever you do, do it heartily (literally, from the soul), as to the Lord and not to men” (Col. 3:23). So all our being is engaged with the exaltation of Christ, of preoccupation of this fellowship so we may be of one mind with the fellowship in a way that reflects the image of God in us. We know Him and fellowship with Him in order to manifest Him to the world.
So 1 John helps us to identify when we really are in fellowship, by pointing out the negatives of what not to do, such as hate your brother, withhold your goods from helping another, or love the world; and the positives, such as use our goods to help our brother, lay down our lives for another person, believe in the name of the Son. The presence of all these positive traits indicate that our wills are dependent on the fellowship; it is a living connection. They show we are humble to detect where the wind of the Spirit of this fellowship is blowing and follow it (John 3:8). We are led by the Spirit and not the flesh (Rom. 8:13; Gal. 5:16-17).
Jesus said this of Himself, “I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me” (John 5:30). Our goal with the Word of God is to let it replace the way we think so we readily detect the movement of the Spirit and fall in line to express it with all we are and have. With such decisions, we are being righteous, living out the righteousness God has imputed to us. (Who among us can say he does not seek his own will?)
Jesus did this so perfectly that He could say, “He that has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). He told us how we are to do the same: “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. … and I will love him and manifest Myself to him” (John 14:21). Jesus will reveal Himself to those to follow the commandments they receive. What do we do with the commandment? We keep it, apply it, and let it abide in us so it becomes a working principle that undergirds our thinking, identity, and decision-making. The Spirit brings the Word to our attention (John 14:26), whatever Jesus has taught us, and we would respond to it, led by the Spirit.
This being led by the Spirit, in accordance to the will of the fellowship of the Son and the Father, comes from being humble and pliable. This is what Jesus meant when He said of those who continue in His word, “and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Free from the world, the flesh, and the devil that seeks to disrupt the fellowship with us that Jesus had with His Father.
His Word is truth (John 17:17) and sanctifies us (separates us to God, free from the pull of the world, the flesh and the devil), and when it takes up residence, it transforms our lives and our fellowship with God. God is love, and the truth transforms our comprehension of how much we are to love others as He loved us. And when we abide in Him, we keep the fellowship a priority; we keep being led by the Spirit; we continue to know Him and His joy. So the Spirit and the Word earnestly teaches us, “you will abide in Him.”
