Are Christ-Followers Beyond Teaching? – Greg Albrecht

“As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you” (1 John 2:27). 

QUESTION / COMMENT:

Greg, hope you are doing well. Thank you for the many fine articles we are receiving and reading in the monthly magazines and the monthly letter — not to mention so many other resources on the blog and posted on www.ptm.org. I have been thinking about 1 John 2:27 lately. I am wondering how much the Lord teaches us personally. If you have time I would appreciate your thoughts on this topic. Thank again for you and all your staff for serving us Greg. Wishing that the Lord Christ Jesus continues giving you the strength and maintains the wisdom He has given you through your lifetime.

Your brother in Christ Jesus.

 RESPONSE:

The sense I receive from this passage is one of the permanence of a gracious gift. God gives us of himself. God, by his grace, transforms us from the inside out, so that while we are still mortal and in this corruptible body, we are also God’s children, heirs of his kingdom. By his grace, we remain what we are —born of flesh, creatures of time and space, and children of God, born of God, So then we have something of eternity dwelling in us by the grace of God. It seems to me John is telling us not to let anyone persuade us (or teach us) that we do not belong to God by his grace. We are his children.  

1 John 2:27 – read in isolation, this verse does not translate well — that is, it is not an “easy” read, particularly outside of its greater context.  

Why does John insist that we have no need of anyone teaching us? Something of the divine is within us which cannot be removed.

— the Authorized King James and the NIV say “the anointing you received…”

— the New English says “the initiation you have received from him”

— The Message Bible speaks of “what is embedded deeply within you…”

— The New Testament in Modern English by J.B. Phillips says “the touch of his Spirit never leaves you…”

— The Amplified Bible, which attempts to offer synonyms to vague or obtuse words, says “…as for you, (the sacred appointment, the unction) the anointing which you have received…”

I get the idea that John is trying to assure his “dear children” (a phase he uses of his readers several times throughout this book, not a relationship he presumes to be equal with the divine Father of course but one that he uses to communicate his love and care for his readers) that they, if they remain as he recorded Jesus saying, in the 15th chapter of his Gospel, remain attached to the vine, which is Jesus, then they need not fear being theologically seduced and led astray.  

In fact, with that word “remain” in mind we read the last three words of 1 John 2:27: “remain in him.”

Ironically, or more than that, most important, the admonition John records as among the last words spoken to the disciples by Jesus the night before he was crucified, is about remaining attached to him — that is, Jesus is the core and the crux and the center of faith. He moves and lives within us, and we in him, by virtue of the grace of God. If we are attached to the vine, we will not wither up and die and be blown here and there, as Paul says in Ephesians 4:14, by every wind of teaching. 

The larger context of the passage in question — 1 John 2:27 — is all about teachings that deny the Son of God — those who deny Jesus is the Christ, the teaching of anti-Christ, but you, John assures them and us, “have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth” (vs 20). 

Jesus told Thomas, in response to a question, “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6).  I see John in 1 John 2 telling us that if we, by the grace of God, have Jesus — and if he has us — if we abide in the Vine, who is Jesus — if we remain attached — then we have been planted, we are anointed, we are protected, we are secure, in him, because we are in him and he is in us. He is the Truth, and by the grace of God we have the Truth. We have no need of any other teacher — we have Jesus — who IS the way and the truth and the life. We have no need of any other spiritual Father — we have God the Father. We have the Holy Spirit – “the Spirit of Truth” (John 14:17).  

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