The Anointing Of The Holy Spirit
THE ANOINTING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
1 JOHN 2:18-27
True Christians don’t run after new teaching or go against the “sixth sense” given to them by the Holy Spirit.
Christians who have learnt how to look on society with the eyes of God are not likely to be misled by those false teachers whom John calls “antichrists” (2:18). “Anti” means “in place of”; and so, antichrist may mean one who displaces Christ by claiming to be more important, or one who is the outspoken enemy of Christ. The latter is the sense in which we generally use the term and make it equivalent to “the man of lawlessness” (2 Thessalonians 2:3) or the “beast” (Revelation 13:1). Here John uses it for teachers who claimed to be Christians (2:19) but denied that Jesus was God’s king (the Christ, 2:22). Since God is the Father primarily in virtue of Jesus Christ as his Son, and not in virtue of his creation of humanity, to deny the sonship of Jesus is to deny the fatherhood of God (2:22).
Scripture must be interpreted in its context. To all true Christians the Holy Spirit gives an anointing and so they have an intuitive, inner knowledge of certain basic facts: “you all have knowledge” (2:20). This knowledge is not something that makes teaching and the study of the Scriptures unnecessary, nor does it introduce us to secrets of which the Bible says nothing. It is rather an intuitive knowledge that certain teaching is false (2:27; see also John 10:5,27) One of the greatest difficulties for young Christians is when they find this inner light decried and they are virtually forced to assent to propositions which they know to be false. This inner light can easily be distinguished from the intellectualism that challenges established Christian doctrine. It will never deny the Scriptures; if it does, it does not come from God.
It should be specially noted that John shows no distress at the fact that these antichrists were once church members (2:19). He was evidently confident that in the local church where Christ was Lord the false teacher would soon be too uncomfortable to stay for long. The mention of “the last hour” (2:18; see also 2 Peter 3:3) is intended to bring out that just as Jesus Christ brought the revelation of God to its earthly climax, so it also brings out the revelation of the climax of sin’s rebellion.
Thought Do not be afraid of being led by the Holy Spirit.