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Read Introduction to 1 John

 

“But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.”

 

But

Verse 27 is the solution to the religious deception of verse 26. 

the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you,

The Holy Spirit’s presence ever abides in the believer.  He lives, remains, and stays in every Christian.  No sin will drive Him away.  His abiding presence remains with each Christian. 

John discussed “the anointing” in verse 20.  The anointing refers to the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit to work in the life of the believer.  In this case, the indwelling Holy Spirit helps ferret out false teachers and false teaching. 

and you do not need that anyone teach you;

The idea is not that the anointing of the Holy Spirit preempts a teacher of the Word of God but that He co-operates with it to protect us against apostasy.  No man can add anything to what the Holy Spirit taught John’s readers, so there is no need for further revelation.  There is then no need that a false teacher teaches you anything! 

PRINCIPLE: 

The Holy Spirit protects every believer from religious tangents. 

APPLICATION: 

Satan can easily seduce baby Christians.  They are the most susceptible to spiritual infection.  The first thing you know is that they have come down with some spiritual sickness.  The Holy Spirit is their spiritual safeguard.  He will keep them from being swept away on religious tangents. 

Do you have difficulty extracting principles of the Word to live the Christian life?  If you do, you have help.  God promises that His Holy Spirit will enable you to understand divine truth. 

This does not mean that we always come to the right understanding of the Bible.  Every person has misunderstandings about Scripture, but the idea here is that the Holy Spirit will process us toward the truth and keep us from error. 

It is possible to hear with our ears but not understand in our spirit.  This is what Jesus said in Matthew 13.  He illumines our minds and hearts.  He goes further by bringing us under conviction about a truth.  The Spirit of God takes the Word of God and makes the child of God like the Son of God. 

Mt 13:13-15, 13Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 “And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:

Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,

And seeing you will see and not perceive;

15  For the hearts of this people have grown dull.

Their ears are hard of hearing,

And their eyes they have closed,

Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,

Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,

So that I should heal them.’”

Ac 20:22-23, 22 “And see, now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, 23 “except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me.”

Eph 1:17-18, 17 “…that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints…”

The human teacher is only an instrument.  An instrument cannot take the place of the Holy Spirit or contradict the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit delivers us from the error of false teachers.  He will alert us to novel explanations of Scripture peddled by antichrists.  The Spirit will dispense with their teaching if the child of God responds to His indwelling presence. 

Bible taught, and Spirit grounded believers have the best protection against people pretending to represent God with a new truth. 

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