1 John
1Jo 2:24-29 - Abiding Truth
by Joe Holder
Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father. And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him. (1Jo 2:24-29)
Our human nature craves new things and new ideas. We may have used a particular product for years, and it worked beautifully. But then someone, perhaps even the manufacturer of our old faithful product, will run a flashy campaign advertising a similar product as "new and improved." We readily abandon the old for the new. Even in our faith we will lean in one of two extreme philosophies. Wary of anything we perceive as new because of this altogether human inclination, 1) we will fiercely hold to what we perceive to be the old. Or abandoning any concept of God and absolute truth from Him as our guide, 2) we will constantly look for new ideas or slants on our faith. In many ways our choice will grow out of our perception and our measure of what is old and what is new. All too often we view what we recall from childhood as "old." But what if our childhood witnessed something at the time brand new? We think it old, but in the historic perception of Christian history, it is far too young to be "old" in any credible way. The irony is that when we judge "old" by our personal experience we may actually think something to be old that is new. And when someone tells us about the old Biblical and historic truth, we think him/her untrustworthy, as if they tried to teach us a new thing.
We should approach this question with a degree of humility. While God is absolute and His truth is absolute, we are finite. Our perception of God's truth may not be as absolute as God. Therefore in many areas of non-essential thought we should exercise personal humility regarding our views and abundant charity toward those who hold different view from our own.
At the same time we should educate ourselves in areas presented in the Bible as essential and non-negotiable. In these areas we should stand firmly with John and other Scriptural authors. However broad or narrow your definition of essentials may be John takes the initiative on the incarnation and deity of Christ and makes certain that these truths are essential and not negotiable.
What is the conclusion of God's essential truth as revealed to us in Scripture? It concludes in a glorious promise. God has promised us eternal life in Christ. We need not redefine eternal or try to limit this promise to our earthbound existence. John intended far more than that by his use of the term. A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, writes that the Greek word John and other New Testament writers use most often for eternal is the strongest word in the Greek language for our primary understanding of eternal, something beyond time and never-ending.
What is the immediate impact on our Christian ethic and our personal lifestyle to this idea of God's faithful promise? It requires that we actively and constantly abide in Him, remain in Him and under His lordship in our life-choices. I do not hold that different people will occupy different levels or positions of glory or honor in heaven, for that idea challenges the core truth that our presence in heaven relates to Christ's death for us. Can we make a Biblical case that He died any more for one of His children than for another? However many Scriptures indicate some element of judgment or divine scrutiny of our lives, either at the moment of death or at the resurrection. As we pass through the transition from this life to eternity, from this world to that, it seems altogether natural to look back with reflection and with a degree of divine insight we didn't always enjoy during this life. At that time we will either look back with regret and grief for sins and neglected blessings. Or we will look back with joy and celebration as we move into that heavenly world. The New Testament places significant importance on this moment, however comprehensive or brief it may be. John raises this issue here. Do we want to enter God's presence reliving sins and errors of action and thought? Do we want, in this exact context, to look back at a low view we held of God and of Christ? Do we want to enter His presence red-faced and ashamed at our conduct toward Him and toward His people during our lifetime?
This sobering question should awaken in us a sensitive devotion to God and to His revealed truth in Scripture. It boils down to a rather simple choice. Would you rather face occasional embarrassment and shame before other men and women who do not share you faith in Christ? Or would you rather have their blessing and face embarrassment and shame as you enter His presence? You can't do both!
If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him. John selects two different Greek words for know in this verse. In the first instance, "If ye know that he is righteous," the word refers to intuitive or absolute knowledge. Although we hold tightly and correctly to the fact that God is righteous in all His ways and being, we cannot speak to that conviction from personal experience. We are finite beings, not capable of exploring or knowing God in every aspect of His being. Thus our knowledge of His character must be intuitive and not experiential.
Then John's next word, "...ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him," refers to experiential knowledge. Our intuitive sense of God tells us things we may expect and count on in our personal experience of Him. And this personal experiential knowledge of Him will correspond to the intuitive knowledge on which we build it. Here again A. T. Robertson offers an obvious, but important, comment, "Doing righteousness is proof of the new birth." We may properly judge that people who fail to believe these doctrines are either personally deceived or that they are evil deceivers. John refers to them as seducing you. He leaves them at that point in God's hands. He feels no compulsion to make them a child of God in disobedience, latent universalism. Nor does he feel compelled to immediately and permanently judge them as for ever lost to God. He simply judges their present course as evil and seductive to an essential Biblical truth.
Our assurance of our own salvation or of another person's must rely on present conduct, not on our wishful desires. We have no Biblical authority to tell a wicked seductive person steeped in error and sin that he/she is actually a child of God in error. We don't know, and God doesn't give us this latitude. We may know, observe and conclude on the basis of personal experience, that a person who consistently lives righteously is born of God. We may not know the same conclusion from a person who lives in unrighteousness. To make such a stretch in our personal thinking or, worse, to give such assurance to a person living in unrighteousness cannot claim Biblical example or authority. Actually from John's statement here, we have no basis either in our intuitive knowledge of God or in our personal experiential knowledge that such is the case at all. Our true experiential knowledge bears the stamp of credibility only in so far as it corresponds to our intuitive knowledge of God and of His holy nature.
Whether in our own experience or in the lives of others, sin has a way of dulling one's senses toward righteousness. It anesthetizes the conscience, not only in the specific area of the immediate personal sin, but in all areas in which we may discern sin. If we consciously make a place for sin in our lives or in our assessment and approval of others, we intentionally blind our minds and consciences to sin and to righteousness. Thus we endanger our own sense of sin when we apply unscriptural criteria to the conduct of other people. God did not appoint us as anyone's eternal judge. He reserves that right to Himself alone. But our view of them and of our own selves in terms of divine righteousness will directly impact our sensitivity to sin and to righteousness. Follow His guide alone.
1Jo 3:1-2- Sons of God, Not Gods