1st john 2......freedom from sin
There are three divisions of thought in this important chapter;
1) Verses 1-2 Provision for sins
2) Verses 3-11 Tests of faith.
3) Verses 12-29 Stages of growth
Verses 1-2 God’s provision for sins. “My little children these things I write unto you that ye sin not....”
This provision is in His Son, stated in a threefold way, for the believer to avoid ongoing sin. He is referring to individual lapses into sin, rather than habitual sin. For it is not envisaged that God’s children will live in sin. The words “sin not” is in the aorist tense indicating an action in the past that has continuously present effects. As we shall see, God does not want us to sin at all, but in the likelihood we will, He has made full provision...it is not “when any man sin”, but “if any man sin”. His provision is as follows:
He is Jesus Christ the righteous This is His accuracy to detect failure in our lives. He alone is righteous in all the world, He alone is the standard by which right and wrong is determined. He alone can judge the world, an office given to Him by virtue of His perfect life and sacrifice in death. His judgments are firstly faithful to God and secondly fair to man, He never errs in the matter of moral rectitude with God, and is the true judge of human character and behaviour. We know therefore He is right! We know therefore that in Him, the matter of right or wrong is according to God.
He is our advocate with the Father This is His advocacy to defend frailty in our lives. We are saved but still possess a sinful nature and when we lapse into sin, there is one who defends us before the Father. He stands by us, speaks for us, represents us in heaven, like an earthly advocate would and He never loses a case. He pleads His own merit as being ours, when we sin God does not cease to be our Father, but sin must be dealt with if fellowship with the God of light is to be maintained. He deals with the offence by pleading the abiding value of His person and that of His work as we shall see next.
He is the propitiation for our sins This is His adequacy to deliver us from fear. God’s wrath against sin, having been fully satisfied, the floodgates of blessing to all are opened wide. The Greek preposition peri is used here which indicates every individual occurrence of sin, none omitted from the encompassing removal of sin in it’s every aspect. In propitiation God has been fully satisfied, His demands have been fully met and that applies to the world as to the Church. He and He alone is the means by which we can be free from the fear of Divine wrath, and fellowship with God is maintained.
Verses 3-11 Tests of faith. Talk is cheap, especially when it comes to spiritual things, so the Holy Spirit through John sets us three tangible, visible tests, whereby we may clarify faith. “He that saith..” 3 times v4, v 6, v 9. Profession is nothing, practice is everything.
First test verses 3-5 Obedience to the word
Second test verse 6 A Christ-like walk
Third test verses 7-11 Love to the brethren
These are qualities that can be developed, but they are the hallmarks of the life of faith.
Verses 3-5 Obedience to His commandments “Hereby we do know that we know Him...”. It is not mere head knowledge of the word, it is knowledge of the author of the word and the only way we can gauge that is by our obedience to His commandments. To know Him is to obey Him, to know Him is to love Him (“..in him is the love of God perfected”). We lie if we say we love Him but keep not His commandments. It is at this point we tend to gloss over scripture statements without pondering what they mean. What are His commandments?...too many to tabulate but a few are as follows: Repent/Follow me/Be reconciled to your brother/Lust not/Swear not/Don’t render evil for evil/Love your enemies/Seek first the kingdom of God/Judge not/Fear not/Learn of me/Abide in me/Love the Lord your God/Love your neighbour/This do in remembrance of me/Go make disciples/Preach the gospel/Love one another, and many more. These are not optional extras or the marks of super Christians, these are for all of us.
Verse 6 To abide in Him will mean reproducing His qualities “He that saith he abides in Him ought himself also so to walk even as He walked”. That is the walk of Christ while here is the model and standard for us. “Also so to walk...even as He walked”. This is a step further from obedience to the word as it is living out the word in the testing conditions of life in this world. He walked here a life of perfect balance between grace and truth, grace toward men and loyalty to God, this is our model. The secret of this is the word “abide”, that is it is not of my efforts, but His life living in me and through me just as His picture of the Vine in John chapter 15. If we say we are abiding in Him and do not manifest the features of Christ, we are deceiving ourselves. We know we are in Him when we display His qualities, John’s logic is inescapable.
In verses 7-11 Obedience to His commandments will mean loving the brethren. He comes to a core issue of Christian living, and the one in which we fall down most readily, it is the business of loving one another. It is one thing to say we love the Lord who is perfect, it is quite another to translate that into love for His people who are imperfect. He characterises it in terms of an old and new commandment. In one sense the commandment to love one another is old in that it is at the very foundation of spiritual life, it is the “word of the beginning”. It is old because Moses taught it as integral to the law (Leviticus 19 v18); there it was taught in the context of not avenging oneself or not bearing a grudge. The standard” was “as thyself”. Jesus reiterated this to His disciples but took it to another level....”as I have loved you” (see John 15 v9 v12, v17). The test of love to the children of God is a fundamental one and goes to the heart of the Christian message. However it is also a new commandment in that a new age has dawned, new standards have been demonstrated. Not until Christ came was the true meaning of love towards people really known.
This new perspective exists because love was given a new meaning by His coming. This “thing is true in Him and in you”. This is His love flowing through us (John 15 v9 “continue ye in my love”). The dispensation has changed; in the dispensation of law they were to love one another but now in the dispensation of grace it is even greater because “the darkness is past and the true light now shineth”. We are more responsible now by virtue of greater light. Here then is a most solemn test of faith. To say that we are in the light but hate our brother is contrary to the light. Those that practice this are walking in darkness and are not in the light. In plain language such are not saved, they do not have the life of God within as they do not walk in His light. Love to God will mean love to His children. This message is repeated over and over in this letter. This will mean there will be no occasion of stumbling placed in my brother’s way. Rather will I seek his enhancement and prosperity.
Verses 12-29 Stages of spiritual growth John now addresses the family of God at three levels of spiritual growth. Firstly we must differentiate between the terms “dear children” (v1, v12, v28) and “little children” (v13, v18), otherwise we won’t understand the message. “Dear children” addresses the whole family of God, “little children” the spiritual infants within the family. He writes to “fathers, young men, and little children”. The fathers are mature believers who have reached a high level of growth; the young men are those with experience who are still growing; and the little children are spiritual infants, either “just born” or relatively new to the faith. By addressing them all as “dear children” he is assuming they all have Divine life. He has a different word for each group, and the verses are arranged around this.
To the whole family he writes in verses 12 and 28-29 and the message is threefold to all of us; a) All of us have our sins forgiven for His name’s sake b) All of us can endure to the end in honour until His coming by abiding in Him; and c) All of us can live a righteous life by allowing Him to reproduce His character within us.
He now addresses the three groups of spiritual growth within the family and he has a word for each. He speaks to the fathers in verses 13 &14; to the young men in verses 13 &14-17; to the little children in verses13 &18-27, giving most attention to the infants.
To the fathers To those who have reached maturity he says “ye have known Him that is from the beginning”. The repetition of this in verses13&14 proclaims there can be no advance on the stage of knowing Him. This is the height, the zenith, the essence of eternal life, that of knowing the Lord. Not merely knowing about Him but knowing Him intimately and personally. The Lord said in John 15 v14 “Ye are my friends if ye do what I have commanded you”. In verse 15 He said they were no longer servants but friends. Abraham was called the “friend of God”. This does not infer complacency but total trust and satisfaction in the Lord. The fathers need only to progress in the knowledge of God.
To the young men To those progressing towards spiritual manhood he says “..ye have overcome the wicked one”. Three times in the letter “the wicked one” is mentioned (2 vv13-14; 3 v12; 5 v19). The term refers to the arch rebel Satan “the lawless one” whose sole agenda is to oppose God and His people. All maturing Christians will at some point need to overcome him. Next he says how they have done this, “..because ye are strong and the word of God abideth in you”. To overcome the wicked one we need strength which comes from the indwelling word of God against which Satan is no match. The pattern is set in Ephesians 6 vv10-17...passively strengthened in the Lord and in the power of His might, and actively victorious using the sword of the Spirit which is the spoken word of God. This was demonstrated by the Lord Himself in the temptation when three times He drew the sword of Deuteronomy to defeat Satan (Matthew 4, Luke 4). All this of course assumes the word is dwelling within us, we cannot use what is not there. This overcoming of the wicked one requires application of learning and practice. The wicked one has vast powers, and long experience and many followers, so the growing Christian needs Divine help to overcome.
He turns now to an issue which is likely to tempt the growing believer, that of loving the world. By this he means the world system in rebellion against God, this is John’s use of the term “world”. It is one thing to resist the advances of the evil one when they are readily recognised, but the world is his playground and it carries many seducing influences. He sounds the warning “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world...” The world is a vast, sinful anti-God system controlled by Satan and can be very alluring to those who, although possessed of a new nature still have the old nature within. He warns about this from three perspectives: it is incompatible with love for the Father (“If any love the world the love of the Father is not in him....all that is in the world is not of the Father”); the nature of the world is personal lust and public aggrandisement (“All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life”); the world is transient and passing and it’s pleasures only for this life whereas to do the will of God is forever. It is so easy to become conditioned to accepting the ways of the world, and take a much less militant approach to it than we ought. The same ploy as was used in the beginning is being perpetuated successfully still (Genesis 3 v6 “good for food”....lust of the flesh, “pleasant to the eyes”...lust of the eyes, “to be desired to make one wise”...the pride of life). We may not love the world of evil but the things in it may attract us away from loving the Lord. Growing Christians can be hindered by overmuch desire for the things of the world, many of which are extremely beguiling. Excessive desire for the material, aesthetic, and status aspects of life in this world betray a less than comfortable loyalty to the Father.
To the little children He first refers to their conversion, their coming to know God as their Father (verse 13) and that they now live in the knowledge of sins forgiven. This knowledge is the possession of every born again believer. However they must progress from this and in verses 18-27 he gives instruction designed to warn and instruct and encourage those new to the faith. This protective ministry is arranged around two principles; the Antichrist and the Anointing. The antichrist in the form of perverse doctrines and the Holy Spirit anointing in preserving the truth and empowering the saints. He will intersperse his teaching around both as contrary to one another.
It is interesting he begins this section by referring to what they already know, “Little children it is the last time (hour) and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come...”. This suggests that the practice of the apostles was to teach the very young in the faith the things of God including prophecy. We have already seen this in connection with the young church at Thessalonika ( 2ND Thessalonians 2 v5). Modern churches are delinquent which do not provide a similar programme of teaching and they will answer for it. He says “The Antichrist will come” and indeed there are many such already here. John wrote this over 1900 years ago, how much more is it true now? We are surrounded by the spirit of antichrist and later he will define it for us.
It appears that some of their number left them. The “us” may refer to the apostles or the fellowship of saints; their departure was for doctrinal reasons and the nature of the separation seemed to be on the one hand Judaism which denied that Jesus was the Messiah (2 v22; 5 v1) and Diocletianism which denied that Jesus was a real man (4 vv2-3). This twin denial of the Deity and the Humanity of Christ attacked Christianity at it’s very heart, for if either or both of these are true the world is doomed. Thus it would appear that the term “antichrist” is to be understood as doctrinal error and is false teaching which is not of God. This will culminate in the false prophet of Revelation chapter 13.
In contrast to this doctrinal error “we have(verse 20) an anointing from the Holy one...). This anointing is the Holy Spirit which Jesus gives to every believer at the point of conversion, as is explained in many parts of scripture ( Romans 8 v9; 1st Corinthians 12 v13; John 14 v17; Acts 10 v41; Acts 19 v41; 2nd Corinthians 1 v21; Ephesians 1v13). With the indwelling Spirit we know all things, even if we don’t fully understand we instinctively know what is truth and what is error. Antichrist is defined by denial of the person of Christ. Denial of Christ as the Son of God is a lie from the very pit of hell. “If thou be the Son of God...” said Satan in the temptation; so also the priests of Israel and the multitude passing by the cross. It is the most blatant lie ever told and is being propagated in major religions today. Those who deny His Deity have nothing to do with God who declared “This is my beloved Son, hear Him!” All those who acknowledge Him as God’s Son have the Father also. This applies to initial faith as to ongoing faith(verses 24-25). We have continual (abiding) fellowship with the Father through faith in the Son. The blessing is eternal life, the life of God, the only life worth living, life that grows in knowledge of God, and the best is yet to come(verse 25). All this is so important to the infant believer.
And now the staggering truth to underpin the faith of the weakest saint. The Holy Spirit from the moment of conversion until the end will never leave us!! He is our constant companion for life. Jesus said this in John 14vv16-17 “I will give you another comforter that He may abide with you for ever....He dwelleth with you and shall be in you”.
The statement “ye need not that any man teach you” does not diminish the importance of human teachers, it simply recognises that such teaching is often imperfect and spasmodic, whereas the teaching of the Spirit within is perfect and constant. He is the ultimate guide and teacher and He is with us forever. “The same anointing (which you had from the start) teaches you all things, and is truth and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, ye shall abide in Him”. The measure in which we allow the Spirit within us to instruct us in the things of God, will be the measure we shall enjoy the benefits of abiding in Christ. The range of teaching of the Holy Spirit is detailed in the written word of which He is the sole author. We can all verify inward thoughts by comparing them to what is written. The Spirit will never prompt us in anything that conflicts with the written word. Thus the infant believer is delivered from the errors and opinions and speculations and confusions of men who are not all speaking for God. In this way they grow in the knowledge of God.
There are three divisions of thought in this important chapter;
1) Verses 1-2 Provision for sins
2) Verses 3-11 Tests of faith.
3) Verses 12-29 Stages of growth
Verses 1-2 God’s provision for sins. “My little children these things I write unto you that ye sin not....”
This provision is in His Son, stated in a threefold way, for the believer to avoid ongoing sin. He is referring to individual lapses into sin, rather than habitual sin. For it is not envisaged that God’s children will live in sin. The words “sin not” is in the aorist tense indicating an action in the past that has continuously present effects. As we shall see, God does not want us to sin at all, but in the likelihood we will, He has made full provision...it is not “when any man sin”, but “if any man sin”. His provision is as follows:
He is Jesus Christ the righteous This is His accuracy to detect failure in our lives. He alone is righteous in all the world, He alone is the standard by which right and wrong is determined. He alone can judge the world, an office given to Him by virtue of His perfect life and sacrifice in death. His judgments are firstly faithful to God and secondly fair to man, He never errs in the matter of moral rectitude with God, and is the true judge of human character and behaviour. We know therefore He is right! We know therefore that in Him, the matter of right or wrong is according to God.
He is our advocate with the Father This is His advocacy to defend frailty in our lives. We are saved but still possess a sinful nature and when we lapse into sin, there is one who defends us before the Father. He stands by us, speaks for us, represents us in heaven, like an earthly advocate would and He never loses a case. He pleads His own merit as being ours, when we sin God does not cease to be our Father, but sin must be dealt with if fellowship with the God of light is to be maintained. He deals with the offence by pleading the abiding value of His person and that of His work as we shall see next.
He is the propitiation for our sins This is His adequacy to deliver us from fear. God’s wrath against sin, having been fully satisfied, the floodgates of blessing to all are opened wide. The Greek preposition peri is used here which indicates every individual occurrence of sin, none omitted from the encompassing removal of sin in it’s every aspect. In propitiation God has been fully satisfied, His demands have been fully met and that applies to the world as to the Church. He and He alone is the means by which we can be free from the fear of Divine wrath, and fellowship with God is maintained.
Verses 3-11 Tests of faith. Talk is cheap, especially when it comes to spiritual things, so the Holy Spirit through John sets us three tangible, visible tests, whereby we may clarify faith. “He that saith..” 3 times v4, v 6, v 9. Profession is nothing, practice is everything.
First test verses 3-5 Obedience to the word
Second test verse 6 A Christ-like walk
Third test verses 7-11 Love to the brethren
These are qualities that can be developed, but they are the hallmarks of the life of faith.
Verses 3-5 Obedience to His commandments “Hereby we do know that we know Him...”. It is not mere head knowledge of the word, it is knowledge of the author of the word and the only way we can gauge that is by our obedience to His commandments. To know Him is to obey Him, to know Him is to love Him (“..in him is the love of God perfected”). We lie if we say we love Him but keep not His commandments. It is at this point we tend to gloss over scripture statements without pondering what they mean. What are His commandments?...too many to tabulate but a few are as follows: Repent/Follow me/Be reconciled to your brother/Lust not/Swear not/Don’t render evil for evil/Love your enemies/Seek first the kingdom of God/Judge not/Fear not/Learn of me/Abide in me/Love the Lord your God/Love your neighbour/This do in remembrance of me/Go make disciples/Preach the gospel/Love one another, and many more. These are not optional extras or the marks of super Christians, these are for all of us.
Verse 6 To abide in Him will mean reproducing His qualities “He that saith he abides in Him ought himself also so to walk even as He walked”. That is the walk of Christ while here is the model and standard for us. “Also so to walk...even as He walked”. This is a step further from obedience to the word as it is living out the word in the testing conditions of life in this world. He walked here a life of perfect balance between grace and truth, grace toward men and loyalty to God, this is our model. The secret of this is the word “abide”, that is it is not of my efforts, but His life living in me and through me just as His picture of the Vine in John chapter 15. If we say we are abiding in Him and do not manifest the features of Christ, we are deceiving ourselves. We know we are in Him when we display His qualities, John’s logic is inescapable.
In verses 7-11 Obedience to His commandments will mean loving the brethren. He comes to a core issue of Christian living, and the one in which we fall down most readily, it is the business of loving one another. It is one thing to say we love the Lord who is perfect, it is quite another to translate that into love for His people who are imperfect. He characterises it in terms of an old and new commandment. In one sense the commandment to love one another is old in that it is at the very foundation of spiritual life, it is the “word of the beginning”. It is old because Moses taught it as integral to the law (Leviticus 19 v18); there it was taught in the context of not avenging oneself or not bearing a grudge. The standard” was “as thyself”. Jesus reiterated this to His disciples but took it to another level....”as I have loved you” (see John 15 v9 v12, v17). The test of love to the children of God is a fundamental one and goes to the heart of the Christian message. However it is also a new commandment in that a new age has dawned, new standards have been demonstrated. Not until Christ came was the true meaning of love towards people really known.
This new perspective exists because love was given a new meaning by His coming. This “thing is true in Him and in you”. This is His love flowing through us (John 15 v9 “continue ye in my love”). The dispensation has changed; in the dispensation of law they were to love one another but now in the dispensation of grace it is even greater because “the darkness is past and the true light now shineth”. We are more responsible now by virtue of greater light. Here then is a most solemn test of faith. To say that we are in the light but hate our brother is contrary to the light. Those that practice this are walking in darkness and are not in the light. In plain language such are not saved, they do not have the life of God within as they do not walk in His light. Love to God will mean love to His children. This message is repeated over and over in this letter. This will mean there will be no occasion of stumbling placed in my brother’s way. Rather will I seek his enhancement and prosperity.
Verses 12-29 Stages of spiritual growth John now addresses the family of God at three levels of spiritual growth. Firstly we must differentiate between the terms “dear children” (v1, v12, v28) and “little children” (v13, v18), otherwise we won’t understand the message. “Dear children” addresses the whole family of God, “little children” the spiritual infants within the family. He writes to “fathers, young men, and little children”. The fathers are mature believers who have reached a high level of growth; the young men are those with experience who are still growing; and the little children are spiritual infants, either “just born” or relatively new to the faith. By addressing them all as “dear children” he is assuming they all have Divine life. He has a different word for each group, and the verses are arranged around this.
To the whole family he writes in verses 12 and 28-29 and the message is threefold to all of us; a) All of us have our sins forgiven for His name’s sake b) All of us can endure to the end in honour until His coming by abiding in Him; and c) All of us can live a righteous life by allowing Him to reproduce His character within us.
He now addresses the three groups of spiritual growth within the family and he has a word for each. He speaks to the fathers in verses 13 &14; to the young men in verses 13 &14-17; to the little children in verses13 &18-27, giving most attention to the infants.
To the fathers To those who have reached maturity he says “ye have known Him that is from the beginning”. The repetition of this in verses13&14 proclaims there can be no advance on the stage of knowing Him. This is the height, the zenith, the essence of eternal life, that of knowing the Lord. Not merely knowing about Him but knowing Him intimately and personally. The Lord said in John 15 v14 “Ye are my friends if ye do what I have commanded you”. In verse 15 He said they were no longer servants but friends. Abraham was called the “friend of God”. This does not infer complacency but total trust and satisfaction in the Lord. The fathers need only to progress in the knowledge of God.
To the young men To those progressing towards spiritual manhood he says “..ye have overcome the wicked one”. Three times in the letter “the wicked one” is mentioned (2 vv13-14; 3 v12; 5 v19). The term refers to the arch rebel Satan “the lawless one” whose sole agenda is to oppose God and His people. All maturing Christians will at some point need to overcome him. Next he says how they have done this, “..because ye are strong and the word of God abideth in you”. To overcome the wicked one we need strength which comes from the indwelling word of God against which Satan is no match. The pattern is set in Ephesians 6 vv10-17...passively strengthened in the Lord and in the power of His might, and actively victorious using the sword of the Spirit which is the spoken word of God. This was demonstrated by the Lord Himself in the temptation when three times He drew the sword of Deuteronomy to defeat Satan (Matthew 4, Luke 4). All this of course assumes the word is dwelling within us, we cannot use what is not there. This overcoming of the wicked one requires application of learning and practice. The wicked one has vast powers, and long experience and many followers, so the growing Christian needs Divine help to overcome.
He turns now to an issue which is likely to tempt the growing believer, that of loving the world. By this he means the world system in rebellion against God, this is John’s use of the term “world”. It is one thing to resist the advances of the evil one when they are readily recognised, but the world is his playground and it carries many seducing influences. He sounds the warning “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world...” The world is a vast, sinful anti-God system controlled by Satan and can be very alluring to those who, although possessed of a new nature still have the old nature within. He warns about this from three perspectives: it is incompatible with love for the Father (“If any love the world the love of the Father is not in him....all that is in the world is not of the Father”); the nature of the world is personal lust and public aggrandisement (“All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life”); the world is transient and passing and it’s pleasures only for this life whereas to do the will of God is forever. It is so easy to become conditioned to accepting the ways of the world, and take a much less militant approach to it than we ought. The same ploy as was used in the beginning is being perpetuated successfully still (Genesis 3 v6 “good for food”....lust of the flesh, “pleasant to the eyes”...lust of the eyes, “to be desired to make one wise”...the pride of life). We may not love the world of evil but the things in it may attract us away from loving the Lord. Growing Christians can be hindered by overmuch desire for the things of the world, many of which are extremely beguiling. Excessive desire for the material, aesthetic, and status aspects of life in this world betray a less than comfortable loyalty to the Father.
To the little children He first refers to their conversion, their coming to know God as their Father (verse 13) and that they now live in the knowledge of sins forgiven. This knowledge is the possession of every born again believer. However they must progress from this and in verses 18-27 he gives instruction designed to warn and instruct and encourage those new to the faith. This protective ministry is arranged around two principles; the Antichrist and the Anointing. The antichrist in the form of perverse doctrines and the Holy Spirit anointing in preserving the truth and empowering the saints. He will intersperse his teaching around both as contrary to one another.
It is interesting he begins this section by referring to what they already know, “Little children it is the last time (hour) and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come...”. This suggests that the practice of the apostles was to teach the very young in the faith the things of God including prophecy. We have already seen this in connection with the young church at Thessalonika ( 2ND Thessalonians 2 v5). Modern churches are delinquent which do not provide a similar programme of teaching and they will answer for it. He says “The Antichrist will come” and indeed there are many such already here. John wrote this over 1900 years ago, how much more is it true now? We are surrounded by the spirit of antichrist and later he will define it for us.
It appears that some of their number left them. The “us” may refer to the apostles or the fellowship of saints; their departure was for doctrinal reasons and the nature of the separation seemed to be on the one hand Judaism which denied that Jesus was the Messiah (2 v22; 5 v1) and Diocletianism which denied that Jesus was a real man (4 vv2-3). This twin denial of the Deity and the Humanity of Christ attacked Christianity at it’s very heart, for if either or both of these are true the world is doomed. Thus it would appear that the term “antichrist” is to be understood as doctrinal error and is false teaching which is not of God. This will culminate in the false prophet of Revelation chapter 13.
In contrast to this doctrinal error “we have(verse 20) an anointing from the Holy one...). This anointing is the Holy Spirit which Jesus gives to every believer at the point of conversion, as is explained in many parts of scripture ( Romans 8 v9; 1st Corinthians 12 v13; John 14 v17; Acts 10 v41; Acts 19 v41; 2nd Corinthians 1 v21; Ephesians 1v13). With the indwelling Spirit we know all things, even if we don’t fully understand we instinctively know what is truth and what is error. Antichrist is defined by denial of the person of Christ. Denial of Christ as the Son of God is a lie from the very pit of hell. “If thou be the Son of God...” said Satan in the temptation; so also the priests of Israel and the multitude passing by the cross. It is the most blatant lie ever told and is being propagated in major religions today. Those who deny His Deity have nothing to do with God who declared “This is my beloved Son, hear Him!” All those who acknowledge Him as God’s Son have the Father also. This applies to initial faith as to ongoing faith(verses 24-25). We have continual (abiding) fellowship with the Father through faith in the Son. The blessing is eternal life, the life of God, the only life worth living, life that grows in knowledge of God, and the best is yet to come(verse 25). All this is so important to the infant believer.
And now the staggering truth to underpin the faith of the weakest saint. The Holy Spirit from the moment of conversion until the end will never leave us!! He is our constant companion for life. Jesus said this in John 14vv16-17 “I will give you another comforter that He may abide with you for ever....He dwelleth with you and shall be in you”.
The statement “ye need not that any man teach you” does not diminish the importance of human teachers, it simply recognises that such teaching is often imperfect and spasmodic, whereas the teaching of the Spirit within is perfect and constant. He is the ultimate guide and teacher and He is with us forever. “The same anointing (which you had from the start) teaches you all things, and is truth and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, ye shall abide in Him”. The measure in which we allow the Spirit within us to instruct us in the things of God, will be the measure we shall enjoy the benefits of abiding in Christ. The range of teaching of the Holy Spirit is detailed in the written word of which He is the sole author. We can all verify inward thoughts by comparing them to what is written. The Spirit will never prompt us in anything that conflicts with the written word. Thus the infant believer is delivered from the errors and opinions and speculations and confusions of men who are not all speaking for God. In this way they grow in the knowledge of God.
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