Passage
I John 2:24 As for you, let that which you have heard from the beginning abide in you. If that which you have heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25 Indeed this is the promise which He Himself promised to us: eternal life.
Introduction
Our text this morning continues our study of John’s first general Epistle. Now remember, in the previous section of his Epistle, John set out to expose the spiritual heart and dark agenda that define/direct the false teachers who have been troubling His flock.
John says that anyone who denies that Jesus is the Christ (eternal God in the flesh and the single source of salvation for man) is being directed by the same darkness/agenda that defines the Antichrist. Not only that, by rejecting the Son, these false teachers have equally rejected the Father who sent the Son. In other words, they do not know God nor do they share in the salvation that God has provided. Therefore they are completely unfit/unqualified to serves as spiritual guides to God. In our text this morning, John turns to show how the believer is to respond to the world’s false teachers and their teachings. Listen.
Verse 24
Notice at once the transition: John opens this entire section of his epistle by saying “as for you”. In other words, immediately after exposing the darkness of the false teachers, John turns to discuss how believers (you and I along with his original reader) are to respond to the threat that the world’s false teachings present. Importance: Scripture never exposes the brokenness of others so that we can gloat or look down our noses at them. Instead, we too are vulnerable to the same enticements and snares as those around us. Therefore, Scripture identifies the danger so that we can recognize it when we see it, know how to avoid it, and offer a clearly defined alternative to its misery.
Notice then how John tells us to respond to the world’s false teachings. John says “let that which you have heard from the beginning abide in you. Importance: remember for John “beginning” points to the unchanging Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is what was promised throughout the Old Testament (2:7), fulfilled by Jesus in the New Testament (2:8), and it has been the single unwavering proclamation of all the Apostles from the very time that Jesus sent them out to establish His Church (1:3). Importance: at once, in the face of the false teachers’ claims, John reminds his readers (both then and now) that Gospel has not changed. Instead, God has made God known. Not only that there is nothing about God that God doesn’t know or that He got wrong. Therefore, there is nothing in the Gospel that requires the false teachers’ correction or updating.
Next, notice John says to let Scripture’s unchanging Gospel abide in you. Importance: at its root the word “abide” simply means to remain FN#1. As such, what John tells us here is that we are to remain faithful to and not depart from God’s Word/promises. In other words, we are not to be taken in by the world’s empty speculations about god; nor we are not to dabble in or try to augment our walk with the novelty of the world’s vacuous spirituality. Instead, in the face of all the various claims and spiritual speculations that the world makes, John tells us to hold fast to, trust in, and base our living and hope on Jesus/Gospel.
Next, notice the results of holding fast to the Gospel: first, John says that if the Gospel abides in you, you will in turn abide in the Son. In other words, you will be included in the salvation, kingdom, and all the blessings that God sent Jesus to accomplish for His people. That is, everything that God has promised in His Son is yours in full without exception. However, that’s not all. John also says that you will abide in the Father. Importance: remember, the false teachers claim to have the true pathway to God. That is, they claim to provide what Jesus and other spiritual teachers only hinted at but missed. Notice then John’s point: Jesus is God sent by God to restore us to God. Therefore, the one who wishes to come to the Father, will come through the Savior that the Father has provided. In turn, all who receive Christ have the absolute assurance that they are simultaneously received by the Father who sent Him (for that very purpose). Simply put, verse 24 reminds me that Jesus (not any false teacher) is the way that God has provided to God.
Finally, notice that abiding points to more than a sterile impersonal salvation. Instead, it denotes a welcoming, a fellowship with, and the embracing of another. Thus to abide/stay with someone is to be welcomed in to their home and to be placed under their care. Notice the result: the believer abides with God in the most intimate and comprehensive sense of the Word. Thus, they have fellowship with God, God’s presence and favor are theirs personally, they are included in all that Jesus accomplished for His people, and even now grace and new life are the determining principles at work in their life. By contrast, the false teachers and all who follow their rejection of Christ, have neither the Father nor the salvation that the Father has provided.
Verse 25
Next, notice that every detail of verse 25 further describes abiding with God and the promise that God has given His people in the Gospel. Notice then John says this is the promise that God Himself has given us. Importance: notice at once John’s polemic against the false teachers: the promises and assurances that we have received are not secondhand nor do they come to us by way of the speculation of a few would-be gurus. Instead, God Himself has made these promises to us directly, publically, and throughout Scripture (from the beginning). As such, they does not require the mediation of man or the assistance of self-proclaimed spiritual guides. Notice then what God has promised: John says that God Himself has promised us eternal life. However, please note: for John eternal life is not an additional/different promise. Instead, for John eternal life and abiding with God are one and the same promise viewed from different angles. Notice then throughout Scripture eternal life is never merely an unending extension of life. Instead, the essence of “eternal life” is fundamentally defined by the abiding presence and favor of God. In turn, the scope/security of “abiding with God” is defined by the unchanging permanence of “eternal life”. Simply put eternal life and abiding with God are inseparably bound. The result is that taken together they tell us that God has promised to all who receive His Son a secure, unending, and irrevocable personal relationship with the whole of the Godhead. Notice then the point: there is nothing that the false teachers have to offer that can add to what God Himself has already provided in full.
Bottom line: the first way that John calls me to respond to the world’s false teachings is to remember that God has provided everything I need for salvation and life in His Son, Jesus. Therefore, instead of getting pulled off course by the world’s speculation and empty spirituality, I am to hold to the Gospel and allow it to direct my life and my hope.
Footnotes
1] Expanded explanation: the word “abide” is a very nuanced term in Scripture. At is basis, it means to reside or remain somewhere for a period of time. Thus, Paul stays (abides) with Philip while he is in Caesarea (Acts 21:8).
When “abide” is used theologically to point to a spiritual matter, this basic notion of remain is expanded to indicate God’s presence with a person and that person’s inclusion in an active, governing, and determinate spiritual principle (for example, the believer’s inclusion in God’s covenant of grace). Importance: there are two points here that need to be underscored as we move forward: first, “abiding” always points to God’s prior initiative. This initiative can be God’s offer or it can be God’s active provision. Regardless, God always goes first where abiding is concerned. This is important because our efforts to abide are always based on God’s prior grace. Notice then that one cannot abide or remain in something that he does not already have. Thus, the very nature of abiding requires the existence of a prior state/condition which is already ours and from which we are not to depart. The point is that abiding always presupposes God’s prior grace, God’s initiative. The second point we need to have in hand is that abiding always points to an active life defining spiritual factor at work in a person (be it grace or judgment- Jn 14:7; Jn 3:36). Thus God’s abiding with/in us fundamentally changes our life.
With that in mind, when “abide” is given to us as a command (something we are to do– as it is here) it means to remain faithful, to not depart from or reject what God has already offered or provided. Instead, we are to actively seek and base our living on God’s provision.