Abiding in the Father and the Son

1 John 2:24-27

January 19, 2003

 

            Open your Bibles this morning to the book of 1 John.  We’ll be reading from 1 John 2:18-27 this morning.  Follow along as I read the text.  Read text.

            In his book Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, John Piper wrote: 

The Puritans believed that without perseverance in the obedience of faith the result would be eternal destruction, not lesser sanctification…What is at stake on Sunday morning is not merely the upbuilding of the church but its eternal salvation.  It is not hard to see why the Puritans were so serious.[1] 

            The Puritans, who mostly lived hundreds of years ago, were convinced that a person must persevere in the Christian faith to the end to be saved, and anything short of this would result in eternal destruction.  If a person departed from the faith, either in doctrine or in practice, the departure would result in that person being eternally condemned.  It is no wonder the Puritans were so zealous to ensure that they progressed in sanctification and holiness and did not fall into sin and biblical error.  They were convinced that if a person failed to persevere to the end, that person would spend an eternity separate from Christ. 

            This view has mostly been eclipsed today in the modern church.  Most churches believe so strongly in eternal security that any profession of faith is enough to ensure someone’s eternal salvation no matter how that person lives or what they end up believing.  On the other hand, other churches have taken the doctrine of the Puritans to such an extreme that they believe that any sin is ground to wonder if you have lost your salvation.  Frequently, you find many people in these types of churches who claim to have been saved several times, lost their salvation because of sin several times, and are now saved again, but unsure how long their current salvation will last. 

            It is essential that we understand the biblical teaching concerning the perseverance of the saints and eternal security.  Either extreme will lead us to biblical error.  The Apostle John was convinced that a true believer could never lose his salvation.  Once a person receives salvation, that salvation is secure.  But John also was convinced that a person in the church could fall away into sin and error and be eternally destroyed.  In fact, he was so sure of both of these truths that he brings them both to bear in the verses we read this morning.  There were those who were at one time within the church who had fallen away into error and were on their way to destruction.  John’s whole purpose in writing these ten verses is to make sure that his readers don’t fall into the same trap of deception and lies and destruction.  So he has written this section to build up the faith of the church so that no one else departs to follow the false teachers. 

            To accomplish this, John began by describing the antichrists.  These antichrists were people who at one time were members of the church.  For one reason or another, they left the truth and began to follow false teaching.  Their departure proved that they never really were saved at all, regardless of any contrary appearances.  It was imperative for John’s readers to understand this.  They were not to be confused into thinking that these antichrists had ever been Christians.  If they would have been Christians, they never would have left the church.  It is this group of false Christians, antichrists, that John warns his readers about. 

            Next, John describes three characteristic marks of a true Christian.  In contrast to these antichrists who only had the façade of Christianity, John writes about true Christians who have the Father and the Son.  True Christians have been given the Holy Spirit as an anointing from God to set them apart.  True Christians have knowledge of the truth.  Lastly, true Christians confess that Jesus is the Christ.  The antichrists denied that Jesus was the Christ, had no real knowledge, and were not set apart by God with the gift of the Spirit, and thus true Christians are completely different and distinct from the antichrists to whom John refers. 

            Even after having described these three necessary marks, however, John must go on to give the final, decisive mark of a true Christian.  All three of the marks that John gave in verses 20-23 can be and often are faked by the antichrists.  In fact, it could very well be that some of the antichrists would have claimed that at one point they too had those characteristics.  Some of the believers who received John’s letter may have wondered if the antichrists were true Christians since they too seemed to possess these three distinguishing characteristics. 

            Thus, John gives one final, decisive mark of a true Christian, one which the antichrists could not claim to have falsified.  The final, distinguishing mark of a true Christian is perseverance.  A true Christian abides in the Father and the Son.  Not only does he have the Father and the Son, but he remains in them, or abides in them. 

            This is the key issue in this section.  The whole section revolves around one word which is repeated six times in the ten verses.  The word means abide or remain.  The basic idea is a continued dwelling or staying put.  The mark of the antichrists is that they did not abide or remain.  In verse 19 we have our first occurrence of the word when John writes, If they had been of us, they would have remained with us.  The word translated remain is the same Greek word that through the rest of the section is translated abide.  In verse 19 John teaches that the reason we know the antichrists were not true Christians who have the Father and the Son is that they did not abide or remain in the truth of the apostles’ teaching.  Their departure from the church occurred to prove the false nature of their faith. 

In verse 19 a phrase must be supplied by the translator to make the verse make sense, and most translations supply a phrase like, they went out, and in the NASB we read, but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.  The words they went out are not in the Greek text, but they are supplied from the beginning of verse 19.  But perhaps a better rendering would be, but they did not remain with us, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.  Either phrase has the same basic meaning, but it is the fact that the antichrists did not remain that decisively proves the nature of their profession. 

            John’s readers may have thought, “Those antichrists at one time had all the distinguishing marks.  They appeared to have the Holy Spirit, they professed to know the truth, and they professed Jesus as the Christ.  What is to distinguish me from them?  How can I know that I will not soon be an antichrist, too?  Since they had all these marks and now are considered antichrists, what is the difference between them and me?” 

            John’s answer is that the antichrists did not abide in the Son, but all true Christians abide in the Son and the Father.  All true Christians persevere to the end.  And so in these four verses, verses 24 through 27, John uses the word abide five times to emphasize the importance of this characteristic.  If you are a true Christian, it will be proven by your perseverance in Jesus. 

            The question naturally arises, “How can I be sure to persevere?  What can I do to make sure that I abide in Jesus?”  In verses 24 through 27 John answers this question.  If the distinguishing mark of a Christian is perseverance, then how can we live our lives in such a way so as to persevere to the end?  John gives us two keys to abiding in the Father and the Son.  John gives us two keys to ensure that we will persevere to the end and be saved.

            The first key to abiding in the Father and the Son is to remain in the truth. 

 

Remain in the Truth (vv. 24-25)

 

            We see this in verses 24 and 25.  John explicitly says this very thing in verse 24.  He writes, As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning.  This phrase as for you, is a paraphrase of the literal Greek rendering, You yourselves.  The emphasis is on these Christians to whom John is writing.  “You,” he says, “you yourselves are to remain in the truth.  You, as opposed to these false teachers, these false Christians, these liars and antichrists, you have a responsibility to remain in the truth.”  Let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. 

            John uses the phrase which you heard from the beginning to describe the truth.  What does he mean here?  He is commanding these believers to let the Word of God that the apostles preached to them when they were saved remain in them.  They are to make sure they do not stray from the Gospel of Jesus that the apostles brought when these people first put their faith in God. 

            At the time of this letter it is very probable that John was the last apostle alive.  With the departure of the apostles came the rise of false teachers who wanted to create their own following, especially the Gnostics, who we will see in verse 26.  These false teachers brought new teaching the apostles never taught.  So John commands these believers to not stray from the original word and to not follow these new false prophets who were claiming to have a word from God.  John wants them to remain true to God’s Word as revealed through Jesus’ apostles and in the Old Testament. 

            How many in our day would like to lead people astray with other written documents they claim are from God!  The religion of Islam with the Koran, Mormons with The Book of Mormon, and on and on the false teaching goes, and John’s response to all of this would be, “What you heard from the beginning – the word of God through Jesus and His apostles – let that abide in you; remain in that.”  Don’t follow these hucksters trying to sell another Gospel which is not really another Gospel at all! 

Paul wrote in Galatians 1:8, But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!  Who is the we here?  The apostle Paul and all the other apostles of Jesus Christ whom God used to lay the foundation of Christianity.  Even if an angel from heaven should come to you with a message from God, if it contradicts the biblical message given by the apostles and prophets, that angel is to be accursed, or damned! 

            So John wants his readers to let the true Word, the message which came from Jesus and the apostles, to abide in them, to take up residence in their hearts, to remain in them, to dwell in them continuously.  Let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning.  Let the Word of God fill you, and let it stay there inside you. 

            John gives two reasons for doing this.  Remain in the truth first of all because if what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.  The first reason to have the Word of God given by His apostles and prophets abiding in you is so that you can have fellowship with God the Son and God the Father.  If you have God’s word abiding in you, then you will be abiding continuously in the Son and the Father.  In John’s Gospel, chapter 15, verse 4 Jesus commanded the disciples, “Abide in Me.”  Then He went on to add, “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.”  How do you make sure you aren’t thrown away and burned in the fire?  By abiding in Jesus.  How do you abide in Jesus?  By letting the truth abide in you.  If you let the truth abide in you, then you will also abide in the Son and the Father, which means you won’t get thrown out and burned in the fire.  If, however, you do not hold fast to God’s Word and you depart from the truth, you will not abide in the Son or the Father, and you will be thrown away and burned. 

            There’s a second reason to remain in the truth.  The second reason John gives is in verse 25.  He tells us to remain in the truth because we will inherit the promise of eternal life.  It is only those who abide in the Son and the Father who receive the promise.  So the logic is this.  Let the Word of God fill your heart and soul and mind and abide in it and stay in it and remain in it, because by doing that you’ll abide in the Son and the Father, and by doing that you will receive what has been promised by Jesus – eternal life.  John writes, This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life.  The false teachers claim to have life and that you need to follow them to get it, but the truth is that if you abide in Christ you will receive the promise.  If you follow what is false you will be thrown away and burned. 

            John’s first key to abiding in the Father and the Son is to remain in the truth.  Stay grounded in what you have heard from the Word of God.  Don’t stray.  If you remain in the truth, you’ll have fellowship with God, and that fellowship will be eternal, and you will inherit eternal life.  

            Not only, though, do you have to remain in the truth, as important as that is.  Just like every coin has two sides, so does this strategy for perseverance.  If you are going to persevere to the end, and if you are going to abide in the Father and the Son, you must also resist the deceivers. 

 

Resist the Deceivers (vv. 26-27)

 

            First you are to remain in the truth, but second you must also resist the deceivers.  This is vitally important.  Many churches have gone astray not because they failed to remain in the truth, but because they did not resist the deceivers.  They allowed those who believed in false teaching to come into the church, and in a desire to be loving and not offend the false teachers or the ones who would lead the flock astray, hoping to lead them to greener pastures, church leaders have allowed entire flocks to be devoured by wolves.  John Calvin put it like this:

 

When we hear that [John] wrote concerning seducers [i.e., deceivers], we ought always to bear in mind, that it is the duty of a good and diligent pastor not only to gather a flock, but also to drive away wolves: for what will it avail to proclaim the pure gospel, if we connive at the impostures of Satan [i.e., pretend ignorance of the deceptions of Satan]?  No one, then, can faithfully teach the Church, except he is diligent in banishing errors whenever he finds them spread by seducers.[2]

 

            A church can only faithfully remain in the truth if it faithfully resists the deceivers.  This is, in fact, John’s purpose for writing this section.  He wants to warn these people of these deceivers who would lead them away from Christ.  Look at verse 26.  He writes, These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you.  There were certain people who were intentionally trying to lead these Christians astray and take them away from the true Gospel.  These people were the Gnostics, who we mentioned earlier.  The Gnostics believed several doctrines that were unbiblical, but their doctrine of Jesus was the main doctrine John is concerned about.  The Gnostics believed two different things, depending on which sect you were part of.  One sect believed that Jesus did not have a real, physical body.  He was a phantom.  They believed this because they believed that all flesh was inherently evil, so it would be impossible for the Son of God to have real flesh and still be without sin.  The other sect believed that the man Jesus was not divine in any way, but at His baptism the Spirit of the Messiah came upon Jesus and empowered Him up until right before His death.  Right before the man Jesus died, the Spirit of the Christ left Him.  The problem with this view is, of course, that if Jesus died and was not the Christ, then a mere man died for our sins, which would not help us at all.  Both groups of Gnostics denied that Jesus bodily died for our sins as God in human flesh.  They found different ways to deny it, but they both denied it.

And so John gives them this warning.  He says to them, “The whole reason I have brought up this teaching about the antichrist is because there are people out there who are trying to deceive you with false teaching, and I don’t want you to be tricked and deceived!” 

            You can almost picture John as a father watching over his children.  He realizes there are wicked, evil men who want to steal away his children and lead them to falsehood, and John is a good, protective father, saying, “Pay attention, my beloved children.  Don’t follow these deceivers!”  It is a natural thing for a parent to protect his or her child, and we see this coming out in John as he is writing this in earnest, hoping to protect his children, as he affectionately calls them, from these wicked antichrists. 

            What tools do we have to resist the deceivers?  We see that there is a great need to resist them, but what do we have to help us go about it?  We, as Christians, have the power of God to help us resist the deceivers, and John calls that power the anointing.  He brings us back to this point he brought up in verse 20.  We have been set apart for God by the gift of the Holy Spirit.  We have received the Holy Spirit, we have this anointing given to us by Jesus from the Father, and John explains that it is this anointing that will help us to resist the deceivers.  Look at verse 27.  He writes, As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you.  Stop right there.  “First,” John says, “the anointing is abiding in you.”  The anointing is present in you constantly!  The Holy Spirit has taken up permanent residence inside of you!  This is a powerful tool!  The Holy Spirit, God the Spirit, lives inside of us as believers.  And He doesn’t just live in us sometimes.  He doesn’t come and go; He abides in us. 

            As Christians we have the Holy Spirit inside us all the time.  Whether we are sinning or worshiping, the Spirit lives inside of us.  He never leaves us.  He doesn’t stop in every now and then.  We have been purchased by Jesus for God, and the Holy Spirit now lives inside of us all the time.  That doesn’t mean that we always please God, or that we never quench the Spirit, or that we are always filled with the Spirit; but, it does mean that we always have Him inside us and always could be filled with the Spirit if we chose to be filled.  When we sin or give in to false teaching it is not because the Spirit isn’t there; He’s always there ready to help us and convicting us and working in us.  This is a powerful tool.

            Look back at verse 27.  Not only is the Holy Spirit present, but He also teaches us.  John writes, The anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.  The Holy Spirit is our teacher.  This is a complicated statement, and there is a great amount that has been said and written trying to explain it, but let’s see if we can make it simple and concise this morning.  There are two basic statements that need explanation.  First, John writes, you have no need for anyone to teach you.  What does he mean by that?  At face value it seems that John is saying that we don’t need any teachers.  We have the Holy Spirit, and so let’s close up the church and go our separate ways and just read our Bibles and let the Spirit work to teach us.  That is not what John is saying.  John is not saying that as Christians we have no need for other Christians to teach us about God’s Word.  If John was saying that, then why even write this letter?  If John believed that no Christian needed any kind of instruction or teaching, why did he even bother to spend time writing to these people?  Why not just sit at home and realize that the Spirit will take care of it?  No, clearly John knew that these people needed some instruction.  So he sat down, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and wrote them this letter to teach them what they needed to know.  So John is not saying that Christians don’t ever need instruction.

            What John, then, is saying, is that Christians don’t need any human instruction.  Christians don’t need instruction that originates with man.  All Christian teaching that is needed for the Christian comes from the Word of God.  That is not the same as being taught by a man.  That is being taught by the Word of God.  When I get up to teach on Sunday mornings, you don’t need me to teach you my ideas and philosophies.  Your desire, I believe, is for me to teach you God’s Word so that you understand God’s Word so that God is the One teaching you how to believe and therefore how to live.  I am just a tool God uses to help you understand what He has to say.  You’re not interested in what I have to say.  You don’t need me to teach you anything.  You need to understand what God has to say.  So this is John’s point – you don’t need a human teacher.  You have the Holy Spirit inside you, and so you need God to teach you from His Word.  God certainly uses means to do that, and another person may highlight for you something in God’s Word, and often that will be the case, but ultimately any understanding and belief you have in God’s Word is not from another human being, but from the Spirit. 

            Turn to 1 Thessalonians 2:13.  Paul makes an interesting statement here.  He writes, For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God.  What’s Paul saying?  He’s saying this: When you heard our preaching, you were not being taught by us, but by the Word of God, and you realized that.  Paul and his companions did the preaching and teaching, but it was not their word or their teaching or their ideas; it was the word of God that they spoke.  The Thessalonians were taught by Paul, but they were not taught by Paul.  They were taught by God. 

            This was the New Covenant promise.  Jesus talks about it in John 6.  He quotes Isaiah 54:13 and says in John 6:45, It is written in the prophets, “And they shall all be taught of God.”  Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me.  Every Christian has been taught by God Himself, by the Holy Spirit.  We know that because Jesus said that everyone who has been taught of God comes to Him.  Everyone who has come to Jesus is a Christian.  So every Christian has been taught of God. 

            So John says in 1 John 2:27, you have no need for anyone to teach you.  How do you resist the deceivers?  Realize you have the Spirit in you, and because of that you don’t need any human to add to what God has said, because God is your teacher through His Word. 

John goes on to say, His anointing teaches you about all things.  What does he mean here?  What are the all things John is talking about?  Does he mean physics and calculus and medicine and geography?  No, clearly every Christian does not know all there is to know about everything.  No Christian even knows everything about God!  The all things must be taken in context.  The anointing teaches you about all things pertaining to Jesus.  Everything you learn about Jesus and need to learn about Him the anointing teaches you, not some man with his own ideas and philosophies.  The point John is making is that as Christians we don’t need human speculation and human teaching because the Holy Spirit is our teacher, and He will guide us into all that we need to know from God’s Word. 

            Just to emphasize the point John notes that the anointing is true and is not a lie.  What the Spirit teaches from the Word is truth.  There seems to be a bit of a jab here at the false teachers, as if John is saying, “The Spirit you have is true and not a lie, while the teaching they have is a lie and not the truth.”  He finishes by saying, Just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.  The Spirit has taught if you are a Christian.  So your tool for resisting the deceivers is the Holy Spirit, the Anointing which God has given to you.  He has taught you that all you need is in Christ.

            So what is the way to resist the deceivers?  Abide in Him.  Abide in Jesus.  Stay put.  Don’t move.  Remain connected and in an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.  That is what the Holy Spirit has taught you if you are a Christian.  The Holy Spirit has taught all Christians that they need to be connected to Jesus; they need to abide in Jesus.  They need to abide in the Son.

            Resist the deceivers.  They are out there.  There is a need for you and for me to understand the truth and resist the errors, the tool we have to do this is the Anointing we have received, the Holy Spirit, who teaches us God’s truth from God’s Word and has taught us all as Christians to abide in Jesus. 

            John ends verse 27 where He began in verse 24.  He has come full circle.  In verse 27 we have the command to abide in Jesus.  That is how John closes this section.  The mark of a true Christian is that he or she abides in the Son.  That is what differentiates a true Christian from a liar and an antichrist.  Do you want to abide in the Son and thereby abide in the Father?  How do you do it?  Verse 24.  Let the Word dwell in you, let it abide in you.  Remain in the truth.  If you are going to remain in the truth, you have to resist the deceivers.  If you are to resist the deceivers, the only way is to abide in Jesus.  But the only way to abide in Jesus is to remain in the truth. 

            The only people who are saved are the ones who abide in the Son and in the Father.  That’s it.  Anyone who goes out and does not remain never was truly a part of Christ’s kingdom.  The way to abide in the Father and the Son is to remain in the truth and resist the deceivers.  Let us earnestly pray that God would give us discernment to resist the deceivers, and that His Anointing would teach us the truth from His Word.  Let’s pray.

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