Abiding, Falling Away and Antichrists Pt 2
Bible Study on 1 John • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. 21 I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. 22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.
20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.
20 But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.
Anointing
Anointing
chrísma. The “anointing” of the Spirit enables believers to resist false teaching by imparting clarity of faith and judgment.
“anointing from the Holy One”
What/who is that anointing?
QUESTION—To whom or what does χρῖσμα ‘anointing’ refer?
1.It refers to the Holy Spirit [AB, Alf, Brd, EBC, EGT, Herm, ICC, Lns, My, NCBC, NTC, TNTC, Ws; TEV]. The anointing with the Holy Spirit constituted a person a Christian [AB]. The Spirit enables a Christian to understand the truth of God [Brd].
2.It refers to the teachings of the gospel [HNTC, NCBC]. A person is anointed when he has received a doctrine [HNTC]. To be anointed is to receive a doctrine [HNTC]. Although the Gnostics claim to have a secret teaching, believers have all the information required [NCBC].
3.It refers to both the Holy Spirit and the teachings of the gospel [NIC, TH, WBC]. The anointing is God’s Word apprehended through the work of the Holy Spirit in their hearts [NIC].
Anointed by the Holy One probably means being regenerated by the Holy Spirit.
To whom does “the Holy One” refers to?
It refers to Christ [AB, Alf, EBC, Herm, ICC, Lns, My, NIC, NTC, TH, WBC, Ws; TEV].
2.It refers to God, the Father. It is the Father who sends the Spirit at the request of the Son (John 14:16, 26).
3.It refers to the Holy Place, the spiritual world [NCBC].
The “Holy One” who provides this anointing is probably Jesus, who is referred to by this title numerous times in Scripture (Mark 1:24; Luke 4:34; John 6:69; Acts 3:14; Rev 3:7). However, that the Godhead in general is in view should not be ruled out. Consecrated and set apart by God and for God by the Holy Spirit, we now have an internal and abiding Teacher who will guide us in all knowledge and truth (vv. 21, 27).
20 But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.
38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
John’s readers knew the truth about Christ, or else they would not have been saved. “You all know the truth, because you have the Spirit of God, an unction, and the Spirit teaches you all things” (cf. 1 John 2:20, 27). “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” (Rom. 8:9).
False Christians in John’s day used two special words to describe their experience: “knowledge” and “unction.” They claimed to have a special unction (anointing) from God which gave them a unique knowledge. They were “illuminated” and therefore living on a much higher level than anybody else. But John points out that all true Christians know God and have received the Spirit of God! And because they have believed the truth, they recognize a lie when they meet it.
Perspicuity (clarity) of Scripture
Perspicuity (clarity) of Scripture
A doctrine maintaining that the gospel of Jesus Christ and the *salvation obtained through him are clearly presented in Scripture. In protest against a common view at the time prior to the *Reformation that Scripture is too complicated for ordinary people to understand apart from church *tradition and the mediation of priests, *Luther and other Reformers argued for biblical perspicuity. The doctrine influenced both their passion for Bible *translation and their preference for simple *preaching in the vernacular. Affirming perspicuity does not eradicate the need for skilled biblical interpretation or imply that every part of Scripture is plain and clear. Rather, it affirms that the message of Scripture is presented with enough clarity that it can be understood, at least at a basic level, without advanced theological or exegetical training.
11 “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 14 But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
21 I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth.
He was not giving them further teaching; the false teachers were attempting to do that. Instead, he was reaffirming the truth that had already been taught to them and that they had believed. The false teachers were telling them lies. The believers were grounded in the truth, so they had recognized that no lie comes from the truth and had refused to follow the false teachers.
22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.
The key question for a Christian is: Who is Jesus Christ? Is Christ merely “an Example,” “a good Man,” or “a wonderful Teacher”; or is He God come in the flesh?
The false teaching of those who have left the church is now revealed. It is a denial that Jesus is the Christ. A study of John’s letters makes it plain that by this phrase he does not simply mean a denial that Jesus was the Messiah of Old Testament expectation (cf. Acts 5:42; 9:22; 17:3; 18:28). In the second part of this verse and in verse 23 he refers to Jesus as the Son. For a similar linking of the two expressions see 5:1 and 5:5 and cf. John 20:31; Matt. 16:16. In 4:2–3 (cf. 2 John 7) the theological error he is combating is defined more precisely as a denial that ‘Jesus Christ has come in the flesh’,
In both his Gospel and his letters, John made it very clear that the Father can be known only through the Son. In the Gospel of John, the Son referred to his preincarnate experience with the Father—speaking of those things he and his Father had seen and heard together (John 3:11; 8:38), even relating that he had seen the Father (John 5:37; 6:46).
The whole foundation of Christianity is changed radically if we deny the deity of Christ. Unless divine love stooped and came for our salvation, then we have another kind of religion entirely. Again, if we deny that Christ is God, we have no revelation of God which is central and essential.
To confess that Jesus is the Christ is to confess the Christ of the Scriptures. To deny that Christ, by whatever means, is heresy—a heresy with terrible consequences.
For one thing, to deny the Son is to deny the Father. No doubt the false teachers would have pretended to be worshiping the same God as the Christians. “We only differ from you in your views about Jesus,” they might have said. But John says that this is impossible. If Jesus is God, to deny Jesus as God is to deny God. Second, to deny the Son is to forfeit the presence of God in one’s life or, as we could also say, to have no part of him or he of us. John uses the phrase “has the Father” (2:23).
Jehovah’s Witnesses
Jehovah’s Witnesses
Founded By: Charles Taze Russell, 1879. Succeeded by Joseph F. Rutherford, 1917.
Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that God is one person, Jehovah. Jesus was Jehovah’s first creation. Jesus is not God, nor part of the Godhead. He is higher than the angels, but inferior to God. Jehovah used Jesus to create the rest of the universe. Before Jesus came to earth he was known as the archangel Michael. The Holy Spirit is an impersonal force from Jehovah, but not God.
How then should we respond to JWs based on the next verse?
How then should we respond to JWs based on the next verse?
9 Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, 11 for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.
27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.