INTRO
- remain vs. abide・synonyms, more active, intentional, intimate
1. We have to abide in the Gospel.
What you have heard from the beginning is to abide in you. If what you have heard from the beginning abides in you, you will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he himself made to us: eternal life.
1 John 2:24–25
What did they hear from the beginning? Well, what’s he been talking about? We talked about this last week. It’s the core tenet of Christianity itself—that God Himself, the Author of the Story, wrote himself into the narrative, came down as a little baby—the very thing we’re getting ready to celebrate… starting Friday, and not before! 😉
That’s what these false teachers were trying to destroy. That’s why John calls them anti-Christs, because they’re literally opposed to Christ himself.
This is what’s to remain/abide in us: Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus is God with Us. Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. ()
We never get beyond the gospel in our Christian life to something “more advanced.” The gospel is not the first step in a stairway of truths, rather, it is more like the hub in a wheel of truth. The gospel is not just the A-B-C’s of Christianity, but it is the A to Z of Christianity. The gospel is not just the minimum required doctrine necessary to enter the kingdom, but the way we make all progress in the kingdom.
Tim Keller
You never outgrow your need for the gospel. You never graduate to a course where the gospel should not be the center of the curriculum. There’s no post-gospel graduate school in the Christian life. The center of every ongoing growth in knowledge has Christ crucified, risen, received by faith alone like a little child.
John Piper
2. The Spirit abides in us.
I have written these things to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. As for you, the anointing you received from him abides in you, and you don’t need anyone to teach you. Instead, his anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie; just as it has taught you, abide in him.
1 John 2:26–28
Like we talked about last week, this doesn’t mean that you know everything. I hate to break bad news to you! He’s talking specifically about the Gospel, these basic truths of the Christian faith.
As Christians, the Holy Spirit gives you an u:[innate sense of God], so that the truth of Jesus just makes sense to you. And he makes it not just logical, but beautiful.
It’s like a sixth sense (not the movie!), and works similarly to your other senses.
Like how you know that I’m actually standing in front of you. You don’t require a logical, philosophical argument that you’re here this AM/PM (you may run across some half-stoned early twenty something that’s taking Philosophy 101 in college going, “Maybe we’re not really here, maybe we just think we’re here!”)
Knowing and distinguishing truth is a gift of the Holy Spirit that indwells us.
He not teaching us things in addition to the gospel, he draws us deeper into the gospel, living our lives consistent with the truth of the gospel. It’s
This is how we distinguish between true/false teaching, true/false behavior: does it line up with the Good News, and the Spirit within us.
But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel… opposed Peter to his face
Galatians 2:14, ESV
What is commanded in one Scripture is promised and provided for in another.
Trust the Spirit, not your gut.
Motivation for Abiding
So now, little children, abide in him so that when he appears
1 John 2:28
we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
Remember, this section started with “Children, it is the last hour.” (2:18)
Is it possible to be saved and yet be ashamed on that day?
I think so… depends on what you’re doing at the moment.
But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.
1 Corinthians 3:13-15, NLT
Notice that John changed from “you” to “we”. Even he needs this confidence.
John doesn’t drive believers with the whip of the Law—he draws them with the cords of love. We have come not to Mt. Sinai, but Mt. Calvary.
Charles Spurgeon
Motivation matters.
If you abide in him when you do not see him, you will be very bold should he suddenly reveal himself. What fear could his appearing cause you? Faith has so realized him, that if he suddenly appeared, it would be no surprise to you.
Charles Spurgeon
Conclusion
If you don’t abide in him, you will have no confidence.
We’re in the last days, but we don’t know when the last day is coming. Watch for him. Abide in him in regular everyday life,
Remember the first reason John gave for writing this letter: “that our joy may be complete.” (1:4)
When you walk in the light as he is in the light, when you work to have the Good Word you’ve heard from the beginning abide in you, when you listen for the anointing of the Spirit that abides in you, then you
You make known to me the path of life;
Psalm 16:11, ESV
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.