The Epistles of John, Part 12: Taking Up Residence

The idea of residency is very much on John’s mind.  As a man approaching the end of his life he had undoubtedly occupied many dwelling places over the years.  And as an apostle of Jesus Christ with a mission of gospel growth, he had most likely not lived in any one particular place for a lengthy period of time.  So here in the latter days of his life I suspect the topic of a permanent home was very much on John’s mind.  He had seen houses come and go.  He had moved from here to there all over the Roman world.  The end of his life was spent confined to the island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea, as Revelation 1:9 tells us.  If he wasn’t already there when he wrote this letter his exile was probably close at hand.  As such, I think John’s mind, while fixed on “his little children” in the churches, was also pointed squarely at his permanent heavenly home that he would soon be traveling to.  And as one who had experienced the transitory nature of earthly dwelling places I think John was eager to point the eyes of his readers toward that eternal kingdom that awaited them.  He wanted to draw their attention away from the enticing but fleeting pleasures of this world and cast the eyes of their hearts toward the Lord Jesus.

I think all this is evident because of how much time John spends emphasizing a particular word: “meno”.  It is translated into English variously as lives, abides, or remained.  And while the word is not used in chapter 1 at all, starting in chapter 2 John uses “meno” an astonishing 18 times in four chapters.  We have already seen it in 2:6, 2:10, 2:14, 2:17, and 2:19.  Here in verses 24 to 29, as we come to the end of chapter 2, the idea of abiding or dwelling is in full view.  I believe these six verses break down nicely into three different categories of abiding.  First, in 24 and 25 we see the theme of abiding in love.  Then in verses 26 and 27 arises the need to abide in mission.  Finally, in verses 28 and 29 the need to abide in God becomes prominent.

So let’s begin with verse 24: As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning.  Right off the bat we need to think about what John is communicating here.  He wants us to abide in the love for others that was the mandate of the human race from the very beginning of creation (1^st Jn. 3:11).  We looked at this a few weeks ago.  But now let us consider what it means to abide in this love.  As mentioned earlier, the Greek “meno” is sometimes translated lives or remains in addition to abide.  It means to continue to be present somewhere, or even to be held or kept.  But more significantly, it usually carries with it an element of intentionality or choice.  Consider John 1:32-33: John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him.  I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’”

What is going on here?  Jesus is being confirmed as the messiah and the Son of God to John the Baptist, the one who was tasked with preparing the way for the Christ.  And who was doing the confirmation?  Obviously, it is the Father in concert with the Spirit.  So we have God the Father making a deliberate decision to take up visible residence with God the Son through the anointing of God the Spirit so as to authenticate the Son’s life and ministry as being ordained of God.  This is quite possibly the most deliberately determinative choice of residence in all of history. 

Jesus Himself draws the point out further in John 14:10: “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?  The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.”  The co-residency of Jesus the Son and God the Father was of such an intimate and intertwined nature that they could not even speak apart from each other.

So we are presented with a fully considered and intentioned deliberate decision on the part of the Father to abide with the Son.  This mutual residency is so unified and harmonious that when One speaks it is as if the Other is the One doing the talking.  And this is the landscape of “meno” that John is now telling us to enter into in regard to the commandment that was given at the very beginning; to love.

This element of abiding deeply, intensely, and consciously as a reflection of God’s own example is exactly why John writes the very next sentence in verse 24: If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.  This really makes perfect sense doesn’t it?  The instruction that God gave His children was to love each other.  This is not a transitory or ephemeral love.  We have looked extensively at the depth of sacrificial love that is described in the New Testament with the word “agape”.  It is a love that is of such a comprehensive nature that in a very real sense the one practicing this love is swallowed up in it.  This is the love with which the Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father.  So it is perfectly logical that if we expect to be able to ourselves abide in the Son and the Father we must necessarily share that same form of love.

To state the issue clearly and bluntly: if you do not love then you have no part with God.  It is impossible.  An absence of love is anathema to God because it is a violation of His nature.  It is like oil and water, the two cannot mix.  This is what Jesus was getting at in John 13:8 when He told Peter: “Unless I wash you, you have no part with Me.”  Christ was making a reference to the baptism of the Holy Spirit that His cousin John had pointed to years earlier.  If God’s own Spirit, the epitome of love as already demonstrated, does not take up residence within a person then that person remains cut off from God.

If you have been reading these commentaries for several weeks it may occur to you that this theme of love and communion with God is one that has been repeated several times.  And you would be correct.  The reason these issues keep coming up is because John keeps bringing them up in the text.  I think it goes without saying that the apostle has a good reason for doing so; probably because we need to repeatedly hear what he is saying because it cuts against the grain of our sin natures.

On a final note for verse 24, I think it is also important to notice the order of priority therein.  John says that we must abide in “that which we heard from the beginning”.  What we are to remain in and dwell with is what God has revealed through His chosen prophets.  We are not to rely on our own understanding (Pro. 3:5-7).  We are not to listen to the words of men (Acts 5:29).  Rather, we are like sheep to listen to the voice of the Shepherd Jesus, as in John 10:27-28: “My sheep heard My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.”  It is the words of God, given in sacred Scripture, which we are to give heed to and obey.  And as promised we will be given the gift of eternal life.

This is on John’s mind in verse 25: This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life.  The way the verse is constructed is fascinating.  The word promise is the Greek “epaggelia” while made is “epaggello”.  Even without knowledge of Greek you can see the similarity between the two.  Indeed “epaggello” is the verbal form of the noun “epaggelia”.  So in a sense one could translate the verse as “This is the promise which He Himself promised us.”  And in fact, some translations render it just like that.

But digging a little deeper into the usage pattern of these words we can see some unique characteristics arise.  “Epaggelia” conveys not just any promise made, but rather a proclamation or an announcement.  Romans 4:13-14 is illustrative here: For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be the heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith.  For if those who are of the Law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified.  Paul is using “epaggelia” to refer to the covenant that God made with Abraham.  This was a very public and formal arrangement where God decreed that blessings would come to pass for Abraham and his descendants as a reward for Abraham’s faith. 

On the other hand, “epaggello” is more of a personal guarantee based on one’s own integrity.  Continuing the example from Romans chapter 4, verse 21 reflects this nuance: and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.  It is more than just God making a promise of covenantal blessings.  He personally guaranteed not just that the blessings would come but that He would personally cause them to appear as a testament to His faithfulness and trustworthiness.

So what we have in verse 25 is a promise that God has caused to come into being.  This really gets to the heart of the whole Bible.  The entirety of the interaction and relationship between God and man has been completely based upon the promise that God has sealed with His own reputation and blood.  In other words, if the promise fails then God is not faithful, we cannot trust Him, and He is not just.

And think about what a promise this is: eternal life!  I want to also pause on this for a few moments and ask a simple question.  What is life?  Noah Webster defined it this way: in animals, animation and vitality; and in man, that state of being in which the soul and body are united.  To state it another way, we could say that life is equal to energy plus motion (both of which animals possess) plus thought (which only man possesses).

If creation is a universal stamp of God’s image then it is entirely appropriate to say that life is the quintessential element of creation that reflects God most accurately.  His very nature is life itself.  Apart from Him there is no livelihood.  Furthermore, His substance is the definition of eternity.  Apart from Him there is no eternality.  So in a sense the phrase eternal life is nothing less than a description of who God is.  And He is promising that to us!  He is inviting us to take on a part of His nature; to become in part like Him.

There are two ways we can take this; one heretical and the other biblical.  The heresy is to take the promise of eternal life to mean that we will become gods unto ourselves.  Does that sound shocking to you?  I hope so.  But be aware that even such a heinous doctrine as this is actively taught and preached by false teachers in the world today.  They would make the claim that God, in creating man in His image in Genesis 1:26-27, was following the pattern He had already established of creating things “after their kind”.  Thus by creating man in His own image God was essentially reproducing Himself “after His kind”.

This teaching is utterly absurd.  First of all, the very verse that is used to support it clearly states that God created “man” in His image, not a god in His image.  Secondly, nowhere does the Bible state that God made man after God’s kind.  In point of fact, God has no kind because He is completely unique.  Isaiah 46:9 instructs us to “Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me.”  And in Deuteronomy 32:39 we read that: “there is no god besides Me”.  This does not mean that other gods exist and God is superior to them all.  It means that no other gods exist in the first place.  Therefore there are none who can stand beside God.

The only truth from Scripture about other gods is that they are all false.  It is only man’s depravity that conjures up the notion of the existence of other deities.  And in response to this idolatrous lie God repeatedly proclaims the truth of who He is in contrast to the lie of who man would make Him out to be with their false gods.  Consider the following texts.  In Genesis 17:1 God says to Abram: “I am God Almighty; walk before Me, and be blameless.”  And in Genesis 21:33 we find that: Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God.  Why does the Bible need to clarify that God is almighty or that He is everlasting?  Shouldn’t the simple statement that He is God be enough for us?  The sad reality is that due to man’s ridiculous notions of godhood the only true and living God, in interacting with humanity, must clarify that He is the only One who is almighty or everlasting and therefore true.

So it is patently false to make the claim that Christians are all or will be all gods.  The truth is that in a manner that is honestly somewhat mysterious we become partakers of God’s divine nature through the indwelling of His own Spirit.  Without the presence of the Holy Spirit there would be no partaking or sharing of anything. 

John writes in 1^st John 3:2: Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be.  We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.  Here we see that the means of our partaking in the divine nature will be nothing more elaborate than a clear vision of God that is lacking in this present life. 

Paul writes in Colossians 3:3: For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  Further trouncing the false doctrine of men as gods is the truth that it is not even our own lives that place us into communion with God.  Instead, it is Christ’s life that we get enfolded into. 

Peter writes in 2^nd Peter 1:4 that it is God’s own “precious and magnificent promises” that enable us to “become partakers of the divine nature.”  It is not that we obtain a god nature of our own.  We are given and will partake, which is the Greek “koinonia” or fellowship, of one.  The word divine in that verse is not a noun.  It is an adjective which is describing the type of nature we will partake of.  Namely, God’s own existent nature.

Clearly there is a mountain of theological significance bound up in the little phrase “eternal life”.  And just as clearly the eternal life promised to us is far more than just living forever in the same state that we are in now.  I think our small minds tend to picture eternal life as being simply an elongated period of our current existence.  Even if a Christian is not trying to consciously hang onto the things of this world I think the subconscious mind leans toward associating our understanding of the unfamiliar with what is familiar.  In that way our best attempt at grasping the significance of eternal life is often by way of relation to temporal life.

 

We should strive to correct our perception and realize that what God has in store for us is orders of magnitude greater than anything we can possibly imagine.  And we should recognize that the mandate to abide in love that we read here from John is not an optional exercise for super Christians.  It is not some sort of extra-curricular church activity.  It is the visible evidence and payoff of a history spanning covenantal promise of inclusion into the very nature of God Himself.

Moving on to verse 26 and what I am calling John’s admonition to abide in mission, we read the following: These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you.  Does this sound familiar?  It should.  The phrasing here in verse 26 mirrors the style John employed back in verses 12 to 14 of chapter 2.  It seems that John is leading by example with these repeated reminders that he is either currently writing or has written words of instruction.  It is as if he is calling attention to the fact that he has been faithful to the task assigned him by God.  Picture the aged apostle, seated behind a desk, boring holes right through us with his eyes and saying “I’ve done my part.  Now go and do yours.”  

This technique of John’s reminds me of Paul’s similar point to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:26-27: “Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men.  For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.”

It is in this context, of personal responsibility to stay on task, that John calls our attention to the danger of deception and falsehood within the church.  He has already made it very clear in verses 18 to 23 that antichrists, or false Christs, will arise from among the body of Christ.  They will actively work against the agenda, reputation, and character of Christ by either claiming to be Him or pointing to others who they advertise as being Him.  And even if their efforts are not quite this blunt, merely preferring the things of the world over the things of heaven (which John has also specifically warned against in verses 15 to 17) amounts to the same thing.  With their actions and choices they proclaim the belief that the secular is preferable to the sacred.  God has clearly portrayed Himself as the choicest option in the universe.  So to go after other things is to imply that His claims are not true.

This is the umbrella model of behavior implicit in an antichrist or a deceiver; to attempt to subvert the truth claims of God and replace them with essentially the truth claims of Satan.  But what might the details be of how deceivers will go about this task?  I think John is pointing out with this sentence that it is precisely the teachings he has just covered that false teachers will try to corrupt.  They will call into question whether God has really said to abide in love.  They will oppose the idea of unity with the God-head that comes through modeling sacrificial behavior toward others.  And they will either downplay or outright deny the eternal life that John has just said God has promised to accomplish for us.

But consider how a savvy antichrist might approach the task of counteracting the truth claims of God.  What would be the most effective use of time spent?  Would it be to directly and bluntly contradict Scripture?  No, clearly the best lies are the ones containing mostly truth so as to make them seem plausible yet laced with just enough untruth to render them completely false.  The classic example of this is Genesis 3:1: Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.  And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”  

Satan did not initially claim that God had lied.  To be sure, in verse 3 he comes right out and says this.  But to begin with his approach was to call into question not God’s instructions, but rather Eve’s understanding of those instructions.  He questioned whether she had really heard what she thought she had.

Now consider the example of false teachers given above who heretically teach that all believers are little gods.  They are doing the exact same thing that their father the devil did before them.  They take a Scriptural truth, that we will become partakers of God’s divine nature.  Then they twist and distort so as to present the idea that we actually become divine in and of ourselves.  And the untrained or undiscerning human ear laps it up like a dog because such teaching is exactly what our pride and arrogance want to hear in the first place.

All of this deception in its various forms is precisely and specifically designed to distract Christians and take them off mission.  Our task is to love as Christ loved.  And John says that he is writing about this truth and its ramifications so as to counteract the efforts of the deceivers.  The implication is that they are attempting to deny this essential element of Christian experience.  Thus by attacking the core truth of abiding in God through abiding in love the antichrist is really maximizing his or her efforts by going after the very foundation of what it means to be a Christian.

And John’s point in response to this danger is to remind us that there is absolutely no good reason why we should be taken in by such falsehoods.  Verse 27 makes the case: As for you, the anointing which you 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 reality is this.  We have been given a special anointing that mirrors Christ’s own (v. 20).  We have been baptized with the Holy Spirit and set apart for the mission of promoting the glory of God through the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We inherently understand the need to abide in God and the benefit derived from such.  We don’t need to be educated about the importance of love.  Nor do we really need anyone to tell us that lies are not equal to truth.  This is a universal principle that is as plain as the nose on our faces.  It is these foundational truths of anointing and abiding that we do not need (or should not need) teachers to tell us.

This should not be taken to mean that Bible teachers are unnecessary.  It would be rather odd for John, after having invested so much effort already in teaching and instructing, to turn around and make the claim that teachers are irrelevant.  No, what he is saying is this.  There is an implicit understanding of spiritual things already present within believers.  Because of this the teacher of Bible truths is not imparting knowledge to them that is completely outside the realm of their comprehension and experience. 

Furthermore, rather than contradicting the need for instruction, John’s reference to the anointing of the Holy Spirit actually lends authority to his teaching.  John Calvin puts it this way in reference to this verse:

He said this, that he might add more authority to his doctrine, while every one repeated in his heart an assent to it, engraven as it were by the finger of God.  But as every one had knowledge according to the measure of his faith, and as faith in some was small, in others stronger, and in none perfect, it hence follows, that no one knew so much, that there was no room for progress.

This is the great reassurance of the prospective Bible teacher as he or she contemplates how they can possibly provide meaningful instruction to those presumably more learned and/or more experienced than them in walking with the Lord.  The task of the teacher is not to impart wondrous new knowledge (although that sometimes does occur) to students that are already children of God.  Rather, it is to remind, reinforce, and exhort what is already known.

Verse 27 could be used to deny the need for Bible teaching.  It could even be used as a support for a doctrine of the church being unnecessary.  Certainly at first glance and taken by itself the verse might appear to make the case that we have no need for teachers.  But read in the context of the passage it resides in and considering the flow of thought of the author, it is perfectly obvious what John is really getting after. 

He wants us to stay on task and not be distracted by deceptive philosophies and teachings.  We have been anointed for a special mission.  And we need to be about that job constantly and continually.  We need not be led astray by obviously false teachings.  We need to submit to sound doctrine and the teaching of the word of God so as to gain the ability to spot misleading truth claims wherever they may appear.

And in so doing we will ultimately be fulfilling the great purpose of human existence; the reason we were created; to abide in God Himself.  Verse 28 reads: Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.  I think the question that may arise in people’s minds in reference to this verse is simply: how?  How in the world can I possibly face God with confidence?  John has spent considerable effort already in telling me that I am going to sin.  In fact, he has said that if I try to proactively and confidently assert that I am free from sin that I am in fact a liar.  And to top it all off I am so guilty of sin that I need an advocate to argue my case before the judge.  And my own guilt that hangs about my shoulders like a millstone confirm all of this if I’m really honest with myself.  So how in the face of all this can I possibly approach God when He appears with anything less than abject shame and misery?

The answer is that we are His children.  1^st John 3:1: See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are.  The answer is that when God forgives an offense it is sent away as if it no longer exists.  1^st John 1:9: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

We need to retrain our brains on the issue of forgiveness.  When God declares us not guilty of our sin through the covering of the blood of His Son, the sin is wiped away from the record books as if it never happened.  We need to make war against our memory fueled doubt that would cause us to question God’s promise of forgiveness.

And as someone who delights in God’s law, as the Psalmist in Psalm 1:1-2, we should feel excitement and anticipation rather than fear and trepidation at the prospect of seeing God.  The passage reads: How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers!  But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.

So here is an important question for you to answer.  Do you feel ashamed of yourself before God right now?  If you do then I believe there are only two possible reasons:

1. Either you are sinfully not abiding in Him, as you have been commanded in this very letter.
2. Or you are sinfully holding onto the guilt of past offenses thereby implying that you do not believe God’s promise of forgiveness, as you have been taught against in this very letter.

Here is an example.  Assuming a healthy and godly relationship, a child should have a certain level of fear and reverence for their father.  But that does not stop them from being giddy with excitement at the prospect of daddy coming home from work.  The only reasons the child should have to dread their father’s arrival is if they know they are guilty of disobeying an instruction they were given for the day or they don’t believe he has truly forgiven them for a broken window yesterday.  Assuming the father has previously demonstrated a willingness to truly forgive infractions then the child is implying with their nervousness that they don’t believe what their father says.  Is that how we are treating our heavenly Father with our trepidation at the thought of meeting Him face to face?

In an effort to decimate any lingering doubts John gives us verse 29: If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him.  Honestly, this is sort of the “Duh!” moment of the chapter.  It is another of the logic sequences that John favors.  And it runs parallel to the test of salvation we looked at in verse 6 so many weeks ago.  If you want to know if you are saved then examine whether you are walking as Christ walked.  And if you want to know if you are a child of God then examine whether you are practicing righteousness.

Notice the active role here.  The text tells us to practice righteousness.  This is to do it.  It is to be intentional and deliberate with our efforts.  Living righteously is not something that just happens to fall into our laps one day out of a clear blue sky.  There is an implicit expectation in John’s text that we are studiously applying ourselves to the work of living holy and blameless before the Lord.

With that in mind, what exactly is practicing righteousness?  John has already told us.  To abide in love and to abide in our mission is to abide in God.  Since God defines what is righteous or unrighteous by what is similar or dissimilar to Himself, abiding in Him is equal to practicing righteousness.  Practicing righteousness proves that we are children born of God.  And our status as children is what enables us to stand before Him with confidence when He appears. 

There is a certain beauty and symmetry to the teaching that John gives us.  One point flows to another with grace and precision.  And these concepts are not difficult to understand.  As John has already pointed out, we instinctively know the truth of what he is saying.  Now may God grant us the grace to go and live it out on a daily basis.