Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 John 2:20
But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.
20. But ye have an unction from the holy One ] Better, as R.V., And ye have an anointing (as in 1Jn 2:27) from the Holy One. S. John, in his manner, puts two contrasted parties side by side, the Antichrist with his antichrists, and the Christ with His christs; but the fact of there being a contrast does not warrant us in turning S. John’s simple ‘and’ ( ) into ‘but’. Tyndale holds fast to ‘and’, in spite of Wiclif’s ‘but’ and the Vulgate’s sed. Just as the Antichrist has his representatives, so the Anointed One, the Christ, has His. All Christians in a secondary sense are what Christ is in a unique and primary sense, the Lord’s anointed. ‘These anointed’, says the Apostle to his readers, ‘ ye are’. The ‘ye’ is not only expressed in the Greek, but stands first after the conjunction for emphasis: ‘ye’ in contrast to these apostates. The word for ‘anointing’ or ‘unction’ ( ) strictly means the ‘completed act of anointing:’ but in LXX. it is used of the unguent or anointing oil (Exo 30:25); and Tyndale, Cranmer and the Genevan have ‘oyntment’ here. In N.T, it occurs only here and 1Jn 2:27. Kings, priests, and sometimes prophets were anointed, in token of their receiving Divine grace. Hence oil both in O. and N.T. is a figure of the Holy Spirit (Psa 45:6-7; Psa 105:15; Isa 61:1; Act 10:38; Heb 1:9; 2Co 1:21). It is confusing cause and effect to suppose that this passage was influenced by the custom of anointing candidates at baptism: the custom though ancient (for it is mentioned by S. Cyril of Jerusalem, c. a.d. 350, Catech. Lect, XXI. 3, 4), is later than this Epistle. More probably the custom was suggested by this passage. The opening of S. Cyril’s 21st Lecture throws much light on this passage. “Having been baptized into Christ and being made partakers of Christ, ye are properly called christs, and of you God said, Touch not My christs, or anointed. Now ye were made christs by receiving the emblem of the Holy Spirit; and all things were in a figure wrought in you, because ye are figures of Christ. He also bathed Himself in the river Jordan, and came up from them; and the Holy Spirit in substance lighted on Him, like resting upon like. In the same manner to you also, after you had come up from the pool of the sacred streams, was given the unction, the emblem of that wherewith Christ was anointed; and this is the Holy Spirit”. Similarly S. Augustine; “In the unction we have a sacramental sign ( sacramentum); the virtue itself is invisible. The invisible unction is the Holy Spirit ( Hom. III. 12).
It may be doubted whether S. John in this verse makes any allusion to the anointing which was a feature in some Gnostic systems.
from the holy One ] This almost certainly means Christ, in accordance with other passages both in S. John and elsewhere (Joh 6:69; Rev 3:7; Mar 1:24; Act 3:14; Ps. 20:10), and in harmony with Christ being called ‘righteous’ in vv,. 1, 29, and ‘pure’ in 1Jn 3:3. Moreover in Joh 14:26; Joh 15:26; Joh 16:7; Joh 16:14 Christ promises to give the Holy Spirit. It may possibly mean God the Father (Hab 3:3; Hos 11:9; 1Co 6:19). It cannot well mean the Holy Spirit, unless some other meaning be found for ‘anointing’.
and ye know all things ] There is very high authority for reading and ye all know ( this), or, omitting the conjunction and placing a colon after ‘Holy One’, ye all know ( this). If the reading followed in A.V. and R.V. be right, the meaning is, ‘It is you (and not these antichristian Gnostics who claim it) that are, in virtue of the anointing of the Spirit of truth, in the possession of the true knowledge’. Christians are in possession of the truth in a far higher sense than any unchristian philosopher. All the unbeliever’s knowledge is out of balance and proportion. The assertion here is strictly in harmony with the promise of Christ; ‘When He, the Spirit of truth is come, He shall guide you into all the truth ’ (Joh 16:13). In the same spirit S. Ignatius writes, “ None of these things is hidden from you, if ye be perfect in your faith and love towards Jesus Christ” ( Eph. xiv. 1); and similarly S. Polycarp, “ Nothing is hidden from you ” ( Phil. xii. 1). Comp. ‘They that seek the Lord understand all things’ (Pro 28:5).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
But ye have an unction from the Holy One – The apostle in this verse evidently intends to say that he had no apprehension in regard to those to whom he wrote that they would thus apostatize, and bring dishonor on their religion. They had been so anointed by the Holy Spirit that they understood the true nature of religion, and it might be confidently expected that they would persevere. The word unction or anointing ( chrisma) means, properly, something rubbed in or ointed; oil for anointing, ointment; then it means an anointing. The allusion is to the anointing of kings and priests, or their inauguration or coronation, (1Sa 10:1; 1Sa 16:13; Exo 28:41; Exo 40:15; compare the notes at Mat 1:1); and the idea seems to have been that the oil thus used was emblematic of the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit as qualifying them for the discharge of the duties of their office. Christians, in the New Testament, are described as kings and priests, Rev 1:6; Rev 5:10, and as a royal priesthood 1Pe 2:5, 1Pe 2:9; and hence they are represented as anointed, or as endowed with those graces of the Spirit, of which anointing was the emblem. The phrase the Holy One refers here, doubtless, to the Holy Spirit, that Spirit whose influences are imparted to the people of God, to enlighten, to sanctify, and to comfort them in their trials. The particular reference here is to the influences of that Spirit as giving them clear and just views of the nature of religion, and thus securing them from error and apostasy.
And ye know all things – That is, all things which it is essential that you should know on the subject of religion. See the Joh 16:13 note; 1Co 2:15 note. The meaning cannot be that they knew all things pertaining to history, to science, to literature, and to the arts; but that, under the influences of the Holy Spirit, they had been made so thoroughly acquainted with the truths and duties of the Christian religion, that they might be regarded as safe from the danger or fatal error. The same may be said of all true Christians now, that they are so taught by the Spirit of God, that they have a practical acquaintance with what religion is, and with what it requires, and are secure from falling into fatal error. In regard to the general meaning of this verse, then, it may he observed:
I. That it does not mean any one of the following things:
(1) That Christians are literally instructed by the Holy Spirit in all things, or that they literally understand all subjects. The teaching, whatever it may be, refers only to religion.
(2) It is not meant that any new faculties of mind are conferred on them, or any increased intellectual endowments, by their religion. It is not a fact that Christians, as such, are superior in mental endowments to others; nor that by their religion they have any mental traits which they had not before their conversion. Paul, Peter, and John had essentially the same mental characteristics after their conversion which they had before; and the same is true of all Christians.
(3) It is not meant that any new truth is revealed to the mind by the Holy Spirit. All the truth that is brought before the mind of the Christian is to be found in the Word of God, and revelation, as such, was completed when the Bible was finished.
(4) It is not meant that anything is perceived by Christians which they had not the natural faculty for perceiving before their conversion, or which other people have not also the natural faculty for perceiving. The difficulty with people is not a defect of natural faculties, it is in the blindness of the heart.
II. The statement here made by John does imply, it is supposed, the following things:
(1) That the minds of Christians are so enlightened that they have a new perception of the truth. They see it in a light in which they did not before. They see it as truth. They see its beauty, its force, its adapted less to their condition and wants. They understand the subject of religion better than they once did, and better than others do. What was once dark appears now plain; what once had no beauty to their minds now appears beautiful; what was once repellant is now attractive.
(2) They see this to be true; that is, they see it in such a light that they cannot doubt that it is true. They have such views of the doctrines of religion, that they have no doubt that they are true, and are willing on the belief of their truth to lay down their lives, and stake their eternal interests.
(3) Their knowledge of truth is enlarged. They become acquainted with more truths than they would have known if they had not been under the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Their range of thought is greater; their vision more extended, as well as more clear.
III. The evidence that this is so is found in the following things:
(1) The express statements of Scripture. See 1Co 2:14-15, and the notes at that passage. Compare Joh 16:13-14.
(2) It is a matter of fact that it is so.
(a) People by nature do not perceive any beauty in the truths of religion. They are distasteful to them, or they are repulsive and offensive. The doctrine of the cross is to the Jew a stumbling-block, and to the Greek foolishness. They may see indeed the force of an argument, but they do not see the beauty of the way of salvation.
(b) When they are converted they do. These things appear to them to be changed, and they see them in a new light, and perceive a beauty in them which they never did before.
(c) There is often a surprising development of religious knowledge when persons are converted. They seem to understand the way of salvation, and the whole subject of religion, in a manner and to an extent which cannot be accounted for, except on the supposition of a teaching from above.
(d) This is manifest also in the knowledge which persons otherwise ignorant exhibit on the subject of religion. With few advantages for education, and with no remarkable talents, they show an acquaintance with the truth, a knowledge of religion, an ability to defend the doctrines of Christianity, and to instruct others in the way of salvation, which could have been derived only from some source superior to themselves. Compare Joh 7:15; Act 4:13.
(e) The same thing is shown by their adherence to truth in the midst of persecution, and simply because they perceive that for which they die to be the truth. And is there anything incredible in this? May not the mind see what truth is? How do we judge of an axiom in mathematics, or of a proposition that is demonstrated, but by the fact that the mind perceives it to be true, and cannot doubt it? And may it not be so in regard to religious truth – especially when that truth is seen to accord with what we know of ourselves, our lost condition as sinners, and our need of a Saviour, and when we see that the truths revealed in the Scriptures are exactly adapted to our wants?
(See also the supplementary note under 1Co 2:14.)
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Jn 2:20
But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things
The guileless spirit amid anti-Christian defections, established by a messianic unction and illumination
I.
The anointing–Ye have an unction. This anointing, or being anointed with oil, you have from the Holy One; from Christ Jesus our Lord. There is great significancy in the unction thus viewed as coming from this Holy One. Antichrists are spoken of. These are antagonists to Christ, to Him who is anointed to be the Holy One. You, on the other hand, have anointing from Him. They are antichrists, you are joint christs; for you have an unction from Him as the Holy One, making you holy as He is holy. The holiness here meant is consecration. It is what the Lord indicates in His farewell prayer, Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth. The anointing is with the Holy Ghost. He is the anointing oil; the oil of gladness with which God has anointed Christ above His fellows. The unction, therefore, which you have from the Holy One is His own unction; it is identically the same with what was His. He sheds forth upon you and in you the very same presence, power, and influence of the Holy Ghost that was shed forth upon and in Himself when He was about the business for which, as the Holy One, He was consecrated. In His case that unction was real, sensible, manifest. If we have it from Him, it must be so in ours also. In Jesus this unction was, on the one hand, His having always the Holy Spirit helping, comforting, and strengthening Him. The unction which we have from Him as the Holy One is our being in the same way upheld by the Holy Spirit in all our goings; our being enabled therefore to show the meekness and gentleness of Christ; our making it thus manifest that the same mind is in us that was also in Him. Again, on the other hand, in Jesus the Holy One, this unction was His constant and abiding apprehension or realisation of the Spirit moving Him to the work for which He was sent into the world. The unction which we have from Him, that we may be consecrated to be holy ones as He is the Holy One, is our feeling and owning the inward call of the Holy Spirit, moving us in our sphere to give ourselves to the same lifework that always occupied Him; to carry out the great design of His coming into the world; to be His wholly and unreservedly, as He was always and altogether the Fathers.
II. As thus anointed, we know all things. This is not, of course, omniscience, but full and complete knowledge of the mailer in hand, as opposed to knowledge that is fragmentary and partial. The anointing of Jesus, His being the Christ–what it is and what it means; His consecration as the Holy One; His oneness as the Son with the Father; all that we know. And we know it, not by catching at some one aspect of the mighty plan–the great mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh–that may happen to suit our convenience, or to strike our fancy, but by a calm, clear, and comprehensive insight into all that it unfolds of the highest glory of God, and all that it contemplates of highest good to man. We look at this great theme, or rather this great fact, in all its bearings; as it vindicates the righteous sovereignty of the Lord of all, while it secures full and free salvation to the worst and guiltiest of His creatures, if they will but own that sovereignty and submit to it.
III. The unction which we have from the Holy One, and our knowing all things, are intimately connected. It is only He who is spiritual who judgeth all things, who can know them so as to judge them. For He alone is in a position and has the capacity to form a fair estimate or judgment of the relations among the things of God. And it is by their mutual relations that things are really known and judged. This is a maxim true in all sciences, slid not least manifestly so in the science of divinity. If, in the science of astronomy we would know all its things, all its truths, to any satisfactory end, theoretical or practical, we must get, not the eye of a clown or vulgar stargazer, nor that of Chaldean sage or poetic dreamer, nor that of one to whom the clear, calm midnight sky is a confused galaxy of bright gems, a brilliant shower of diamonds shed in rich disorder on the dark brow of natures sleeping beauty, but the eye of Newtons scholar and Laplaces, who has learned of them to calculate planetary magnitudes and distances and forces, and to bring the whole splendid chaos under the sway of the one simple law that reigns supreme throughout all space. So, in the region of what is spiritual and Divine, the faculty of seeing things in their true relations is not elsewhere or otherwise to be acquired than in the school and under the teaching of the Holy Ghost.
IV. The security which our having an unction from the Holy One, and knowing all things, affords, in trying times, must now surely be seen to be very ample and firm. Others may go out from us; it being thus made manifest that they were not of us, and may become antichrists, or the prey of antichrist. But will ye also go away?–ye who share the very unction and the very knowledge which the Holy One Himself has? Is not this your preservative against all error and apostasy? Is it not a sufficient preservative? (R. S. Candlish, D. D.)
The anointing
I. What the anointing is.
II. Where this anointing is. It abideth. Other anointings do not abide. The fragrance of other unguents soon passes off. But here is an anointing which, like the ointment of the right hand, which bewrayeth itself, abideth, abideth in you. But you say it is not true; nothing is more plain than that ardent Christians get cold, and those who lived Christ may grow self-willed and self-assertive. How can St. John say that the unction abideth? Well, I suppose he wants to call attention to the Divine side of the case, to show us that whatever we may do, or whatever we may be, God remaineth faithful.
III. What doth the anointing? He teacheth, and, saith St. John, He has every right to teach, for He is truth and no lie. Besides, He hath already taught you, and what you have learned of Him should give you confidence in Him for what you may have yet to learn. Read your Bibles, but read them in His light; listen to your teachers, but listen to them with continual application to a higher Teacher. It is to that higher Teacher you owe the greatest blessing you ever received in the world, the blessing which made you a Christian. Remember to trust to Him as Guide and Counsellor, to ask Him what to believe on every subject.
IV. What is the outcome of all this? It is, Ye shall abide in Him. (J. B. Figgis, M. A.)
The unction from the Holy One
I. The Holy One. Who is He? Christ. It had been repeatedly ascribed to Him before, not only by men, but by voices falling from another world (see Psa 16:10; Isa 43:14; Isa 34:15; Isa 49:7; Luk 7:35; Mar 10:24; Act 3:14). And, although all ransomed spirits are called Gods holy ones, the term applies in its highest truth to Christ alone; for to which of the sons of men could you everpoint and say, Behold the Holy One of God! But the evangelist is not now speaking merely in a general way of Christ, but of Christ as our High Priest. A priest who could be charged with the slightest infraction of the law would have been no Saviour. In Him, for the first time on our earth, holiness shone forth in its perfect brightness, and yet in a shape which man could bear to see. In Christ, holiness is our friend; it gives our crown, guards our safety, and inspires our joy. We can give thanks, not at the remembrance of love alone, but at the remembrance of holiness, through the redemptive death of Him who is the Holy One of God.
II. The unction from the Holy One. What does that expression mean? The Spirit of God is here intended; not as to His nature, but as to tits agency; not in His essential attributes, but in His emanations. Now mark three things.
1. This unction comes down from Christ to all His people. Again and again did He seek to quicken the languid attention of His followers to the fact that this influence would come to them as the very consequence of His own departure (Joh 16:7). Now, remember Christ is not only our Priest, He is our Head. Combine these ideas, and you catch the spirit of the metaphor. As the body of the priest received the unction from the Head, we have received an unction from the Holy One; for we are members of His body, His flesh, and His bones. The Spirit was given without measure to Him; and from Him it flows to all who are identified with His life.
2. This influence from Christ makes all His members holy. A holy influence must have a holy effect, and this effect must be the true test of your character. I say not that Christians, to verify their high vocation, must all at once be perfectly holy men, but that they must be the recipients of a holy influence–an influence that will show the traces of its presence, and work effects accordant with its nature.
3. Christ, by giving this unction to all His people, shows their essential unity with Himself and with each other.
III. Ye know all things. This holy influence has an enlightening virtue. It rested upon Christ as the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. It made Him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. Communicated by Him to us, it must have similar effects. The expression used to declare this fact startles us by its boldness.
1. Things that are holy are meant. The emphasis here on the word holy suggests that the knowledge spoken of must be knowledge of holy things. Without holiness you may indeed understand Hebrew as well as Caiaphas did; Latin as well as Pilate did; the Greek as well as that Athenian did who charged Paul with setting forth strange gods; the geography and antiquities of Palestine as perfectly as the proudest Pharisee that ever wore phylacteries; but Gods book will be a sealed book to you: and, though you may have a grammatical knowledge of the words which reveal holy things, you will never know the things themselves.
2. Things that are essential are meant. Spiritual men, however mistaken they may be on marginal and subsidiary questions, know all essential things. If they are wrong in other respects they will not repair to the wrong Refuge, or plunge in the wrong Fountain, or follow the wrong Shepherd. (C. Stanford, D. D.)
The unction front the Holy One
I. This is a common Christian endowment. It is to a body of Christian disciples that John is writing; not to the highly gifted among them, not even to the elder Christians who have acquired a long experience and grown prudent through a lifes discipline, but to all. Simple conscientiousness is of more practical value than the readiest ability. A plain unlettered man will often see the falsity which ensnares men in their long-drawn reasonings. A childs discernment of character is proverbial; the simple soul is repelled from a hidden impurity or ungraciousness that escapes the subtle observation. Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. A mind like Christ is given to you in the very consecration of yourselves to Him; and that mind abideth in you, and teacheth you all things. You have an inward and unfailing standard, which tests all sayings, all traditions and maxims, all the suggestions that may come to you, all the ways of the world.
II. What this spirit is which is gives us in our consecration, and by which we are enabled to discern the truth of things.
1. It is the spirit of the consecration itself. This involves Gods revelation to us of a Divine service, and His call to us to serve Him; Gods endowment of us for the service into which He bids us enter. It involves our recognition of His purpose, our acceptance of His will, and all the influence upon our character of the acceptance of it. Decision of purpose is the secret of directness of judgment. When you resolved that you would follow Christ, and obey Him in all your future, did you not feel at once a new power to discern the evil and good of all things? You looked on old confusing motives, and pronounced them base. Doubt cleared itself from your vision; the scales of selfishness fell from your eyes; you felt that you had attained a new power of judgment. A truer spirit, a spirit clearer and more confident, was yours in your consecration. You had an unction from the Holy One, and you knew all things.
2. It is the spirit of Christ. Ye have an unction from the Holy One; a chrism from Christ. Here, then, is the virtue of our consecration; this our defence against all antichrists, this our power to discern all things: the spirit in sympathy with Jesus, that feels with and for Him. A personal life is a surer standard than all reasonings; sympathy is at once responsive, or is at once repelled. The habit of fellowship with Christ; the culture of our sympathies, the formation of all our judgments by His; the bringing of every maxim and of all conduct to the standard of the life of Jesus, will have its result in clear directness of thought and feeling. It will give thoroughness and practicalness to our character; will demand not only truth upon the whole, but truth in everything, truth in even minor matters, truth throughout.
3. The spirit of consecration is the spirit of devotedness to our fellows. Whatever destroys our reverence for men, whatever denies their redemption and restrains our sympathies with them; whatever leads us to distrust the power of the gospel to elevate and save from folly, and from selfishness, and from sin, any class of men, or race of men, or any individual of all mankind, must be condemned by us as owning the spirit of antichrist. Our fellowship is with Christs love and hopefulness; a spirit devoted like His to men is given us, and by this spirit we discern all things. (A. Mackennal, D. D.)
The omniscience of holiness–an unction from the Holy One
In some minds the love of knowledge is very strong. It is the supreme desire. As the warrior thirsts for glory, as the miser thirsts for gold, as the hart panteth for the water brooks, so do they long to know–to possess truth. Compared with this, life itself is cheap, It is more to be desired than gold, yea, than fine gold. He who really loves and is loyal to the truth will make any sacrifice for it. With scanty income, he is sometimes found starving the body that he may feed the soul. Even to extend our knowledge of this physical globe, what hardships will not men encounter! Knowledge is happiness; and man seeks to know. How deep the satisfaction of a Columbus when, after long tossing on the treacherous sea, and wearisome expostulations with mutinous men, he saw the new world arise from the deep! We experience something of this joy when we are brought, in the works of others, to new principles and thoughts–when we come into the possession of a great and true definition that casts a flood of light upon everything around us. Knowledge is power, and man seeks to know. The desire of power has led great kings at certain times to attempt the conquest of the world, and the founding of a universal empire. That was great ambition, but there is a greater still; even that of the man who aspires to universal knowledge. The text contains the astounding statement that true Christians know all things. We take the words all things in their widest comprehension, as including all existence and all events–the whole universe, material and spiritual. It is of all these we understand the assertion to be made; and it is admitted that, at first sight, such an assertion seems extravagant. For how can we know that which we have never seen; and the greater part of the universe we have not seen? How can we know that in the past of which we have never heard? How can we know the future which does not yet exist in relation to us? Here we must inquire into the nature of our knowledge–what it is to know. Our present knowledge is different in its character from Gods. God comprehends all things fully and perfectly. God sees truth face to face. But while it cannot be said that the Christian knows all things as God knows them, it still remains true that He knows all things in a sense similar to that in which He can be said to know anything. To know one thing fully is to know all things fully. Take a piece of rock. To know that fully implies a knowledge of the history and formation of all rocks; and that implies a knowledge of the whole structure of the world, which again implies a knowledge of creation or the full and perfect knowledge of everything. The reason why the full knowledge of one thing implies a full knowledge of all things is that every object of knowledge is more or less directly connected with every other. Nothing in the universe stands alone, and therefore nothing can be understood alone. The statement in the text is not more astonishing or difficult to understand than another more common statement, which is accepted without qualification or hesitation, namely that the Christian knows God. God is infinitely greater than the universe, and infinitely deeper in the significance of His being; and therefore of the two statements, Ye know all things, and Ye know God, the latter is by far the greater and more wonderful of the two. What, then, does the Bible mean when it says the Christian knows God? It does not mean that he knows God fully or absolutely–that he has fathomed the unfathomable, or comprehended the infinite; for only God can thus know God. What the Scriptures mean by knowing God is, that we stand in a just relation to Him–that we are in a true sense related personally to Him–our mind being truly related to His mind, our heart to His heart, and our will to His will. We are in a true relation to His righteousness, justice, and mercy, and so of all the other aspects of His being. This is what is meant by knowing God in our present state, and seems to be the character of all our knowledge. As we advance in Divine truth, our knowledge will not change in this respect. It will only increase in depth and compass, in fulness and degree. Further, in order to sustain a true relation to the universe, we must sustain a true relation to God; for, since there is not a gulf between God and His works–seeing He continually sustains an intimate and living relation to them–to be justly related to Him is to sustain a similar relation to them; and to know Him is to know them. At the Fall man lost both the knowledge of God and the true meaning of the world. When the highest light went out all the lower lights were extinguished. Now Jesus Christ came to restore us to such a righteous relation to God, and to take that enmity and unbelief out of the heart which distorts for us the whole character of God. He says, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes; even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight. This agrees with what St. Paul says, that ungodly men are ever learning, and yet never able to come to the knowledge of the truth–a remarkable statement, distinguishing, as it does, between learning and knowledge. To learn is to collect information merely. To know is to understand the nature and relationships of things. Men may increase in knowledge as to the letter of Gods word, as the Scribes and Pharisees of old did–they may have a form of knowledge, and of truth in the law; but if they have not the light of life, which is the key to all learning, in their own souls, they are still walking in darkness, and know not whither they are going. All such are enlarging their information, but not extending their true understanding. They are building up pyramids of learning which may be only pyramids of falsehood. They are ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. But what God has hid from the wise and prudent He has revealed unto babes. Jesus makes this great declaration–No man knoweth the Father but through the Son; and hence for every true idea of God we possess, we are indebted to Christ Jesus. He said unto Philip, He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. Therefore, when we know Jesus Christ, we know God, and not till then. But in order to know Christ, we must truly see Him, and to see Him we must sustain a right relation to Him. How then are we brought into a right relation to the Son of God? It is by His own anointing. Ye have an unction from the Holy One. The Holy One from whom the unction cometh is the Lord Jesus. The unction itself–which is not the act of anointing, but the oil or ointment used in anointing–is the influence of the Holy Spirit in the heart. Let us gather out of this subject a few general principles or inferences. First, with regard to the nature of knowledge; and second, with regard to the line of duty.
I. With regard to the nature of knowledge. Absolute knowledge is the comprehension of existence. It is the circle which embraces all things. Relative knowledge consists in sustaining the right point of view, which is to stand in the centre of the circle. God absolutely comprehends all things. Man understands all things, when he stands in the absolute centre–when he is in God and God in him. Knowledge implies the three ultimate ideas of the universe–being, existence, and thought. Being is that which lies within or beneath–the invisible ground of existence. It is the spiritual material, or uncreated substance from which thought proceeds, and out of which existence stands. Existence is that which stands out, as the etymology of the word shows. It stands out of being, which is its ground, and from which it is created or developed by thought. Being, in itself considered, is the absolute nothing: that is, being, in itself, cannot be thought. Thought is the process or energising power by which being comes forth from itself into existence. It is the method by which being, which is essentially invisible, translates itself into existence, which is essentially visible. A thing is that which can be thought. All things, is all that can be thought. It is the believers destiny, then, in the light of God, to think out the universe. To know even as He is known!
II. With regard to duty.
1. Notice, here, the identity of knowledge and holiness. This is set before us in other Scriptures besides the text (Pro 28:5; 1Co 2:15; 1Jn 2:27; 1Jn 3:2-3; Mat 5:8). Knowledge being the perfect reflection in the mind of man of the thought of God, it is evident that the mind must be as a perfectly polished mirror, or a perfectly pure lake, in order to receive and give the perfect image.
2. Notice, further, the identity of thought and sanctification. The process of sanctification is the same as that of thought. It is first negative, or a separation. It is a coming out of Egypt, and a cleansing from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. But it is also positive, or a union–a going into the Holy Land. The drawing away from sin implies a drawing nearer to God.
3. Notice, again, the identity of ignorance and sin. They are one in being confusion. Ignorance is blindness to the distinctions of things, or the confounding of what ought to be clearly separated in thought. Sin is the same in act or life. It is the confounding of what ought to be kept apart. It thus produces at once a false separation, and a false union. Now, the Word of God, which is the key to the whole universe, and the basis of all science, has been given to affect at once the thought and life of man–to make him at once think correctly and live purely. These cannot be separated. A man thinks correctly just to the extent of his being holy. (F. Ferguson, D. D.)
Knowledge by Divine unction
I. Jesus Christ is the Holy One from whom the unction comes. It is very remarkable that on several occasions, in His life as spent among men, He seemed to be the sinful one. He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, but it was in the likeness only.
1. This truth appears, first, when He was circumcised.
2. When He was presented in the temple, the Virgin Mary brought Him in her arms, and Joseph attended with the two turtle doves. This ceremony was for the sinful, who had need of cleansing, and was according to the law the means of their purification.
3. When He came to be baptized of John in the Jordan, John said, I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me? Jesus said, Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.
4. He appeared in this likeness, when He was about to be crucified; when Barabbas, a man who had committed murder, and was guilty of insurrection in the city, was chosen to be set at liberty, in preference to Christ. Christ is the Holy One. See what testimony was borne to Him. The devils said, We know Thee who Thou art, the Holy One of God. The centurion said, Truly this was the Son of God. Christ was carried to the grave as the Holy One. And because He was the Holy One He saw no corruption. As the Holy One He rose from the dead, and was declared to be the Son of God with power.
II. The unction in the Holy Ghost. I suppose the reference to be to the sacred oil of anointing which was prepared in a special manner by Gods appointment. In connection with this oil there was another special and peculiar perfume for the altar of incense. Here, we suppose, is a new type of Christ and His mediation. That pure incense, burnt before God, represented Christs intercession for His Church, and the complacency with which it is regarded by the Father. Before the Holy One gives the Holy Ghost in this particular form other works are elected by Him. There must be something preparatory to His communications. You must be washed. Then you must be sprinkled with blood: without shedding of blood there is no remission. By water and blood we are first cleansed; then comes the unction.
1. It marks out and defines the objects of Divine choice. The Church is a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people; so every member is elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. As surely as you receive the unction, and are touched by the Divine power, you are a child of God, marked out for His own in Christ Jesus. You belong to the society and fellowship of the anointed ones.
2. The unction denotes separation from the common mass and multitude. So Aaron and his sons were separated from all the people of Israel. And through this unction we are separated–sanctified by Christ–called out of the world.
3. The third thing denoted by this unction is qualification for office. We are revived and illumined by the unction. The unction qualifies for holy exploits and for elevated duty.
4. The comparison denotes the consummation of heavenly joy. Every morning, as you have need, you are to seek fresh oil; fresh, like the virgin beams of the morning light; fresh oil, like the flowers of the early spring; fresh oil, like the blood of the sacrifice newly spilt, and presented before God upon the altar. Fresh influence, help, and succour, is to be sought to the last hour of our life from the Holy One of God.
5. We receive the Holy Ghost to establish and to preserve us. Of some the Apostle John affirms, They went out from us, but they were not of us. In contrast to this, where the unction comes, it is abiding.
6. Finally, the unction comes to make you useful. It will be like an odour that is not to be hidden: it fills all the room. You will be a prophet to teach, shedding light by your example. You will be a priest, to offer the sacrifice of praise. You will be a king, having rule over your own spirit.
III. As we have the unction from the Holy One, we know all things. There is a self-evidencing power in truth by which we know all these blessed subjects of Divine revelation. We know that we are of God by His Spirit which is in us. If I feel in my mind the influence of Christ, producing penitence and love, and desires after holiness and heaven, I may say, It is by the Holy Ghost. (James Stratten.)
An unction from the Holy One
1. First, it is observable that the text contains an affirmation represented to be peculiarly descriptive of genuine believers.
2. It is more important, however, to observe that the text accounts for this peculiarity of genuine believers, and teaches us both what it is and whence it arises. But ye have an unction from the Holy One.
3. We now proceed to that which is most prominent in the text, the result of the unction of the Holy One in the experience and life of the believer–Ye know all things. It is with great appropriateness this effect of the indwelling of the Spirit is introduced here. It is as the best and only safeguard against error and those who seek to promote it. The believer is so under the influence of the Spirit, that error does not find ready entrance to his mind. We are all acquainted with the use and exercise of instinct in the lower creation. They are placed in a luxuriant herbage, part of which would be to them poison and death, and other portions nutritious and necessary food. They are not much in danger of mistaking the one for the other. However closely they may resemble one another, they can tell which they are to use and which they are to shun. Men, with all their sagacity, may err, but the untaught quadruped seldom hesitates or goes astray. His Creator has taught him, and in this department of His works he knows all things that he needs to know. If we go to the winged creation, they are instructed, not merely with what they are to regale themselves, but they know to perfection how to protect themselves and their offspring from the inclement season. Of all these creatures there is a sense in which it may be truly said, they know all things. There is, however, another and a higher illustration to be found among men themselves. As there is instinct in the inferior creation, there is what may be called taste in the intellectual world. It is very diversified in different persons. Some have a powerful propensity for certain objects or engagements which are just as much disrelished by others. Take, for example, the fine arts, or any of the sciences. One is enamoured with them from his youth, and another is indifferent to them, while neither can tell why it is so. But mark the readiness with which the former becomes a proficient in that which pleases him, and compare it with the difficulty which the latter finds it impossible to overcome. The one readily knows all things appertaining to his favourite study, and the other is only confounded and disheartened by all his attempts. Thus there is a sense in which it may be said of the natural taste with which God is pleased to endow us, it readily knows all things appertaining to the object of its interest and delight. There is still another illustration of the same propensity of the human mind. Observe the effect of experience. In the various forms of handicraft or other engagements, whether mental or manual, the power of habit is remarkable. Whatever relates to the accustomed exercise is perceived and understood at once. Practice, it is said, makes perfect. Now let these illustrations be applied to the subject under consideration. The Holy Spirit visits the soul with His unction. By His influence the mind is enlightened to apprehend the truth, the heart is sanctified through the belief of it, and the life is spent under the power of it. What is the consequence? The soul participates in the benefits of its own decided tastes and cherished habits. A sanctified instinct may be said to be formed in it by which it chooses what is good and refuses the evil. It does not need in every case to pause, and reason, and consider. Without any such process, it feels instinctively what is the course to be either pursued or shunned. This heavenly taste is usually the best casuist. It is the product of an enlightened conscience. And the expression is not too strong when it is said of those who yield themselves to its habitual influence, Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. (James Morgan, D. D.)
Unction from the Holy One
I. The unction is the gift of the Holy Ghost.
II. That unction is promised to every believer (Joh 3:5-6; Act 2:38; Act 8:15; Act 19:2; 2Co 1:22; 2Co 5:5; Eph 1:13-14; Eph 4:30; also Rom 8:15; 1Co 2:12; 1Co 12:13; Gal 3:2-3, etc.).
III. It is imparted to us by various channels.
1. Baptism is a channel whereby the unction is conveyed (Joh 3:5; Act 2:38; 1Co 12:13; Tit 3:5-6).
2. Confirmation is a means of fresh and fuller unction (Act 8:17-18; Act 19:6, by comparison with 1Ti 4:14; 2Ti 1:6).
3. The holy communion renews this unction.
4. The ministry of the Word imparts this unction (Gal 3:2; Act 10:44; 1Co 2:4; 1Co 2:13; 1Co 3:2; 2Co 3:3; 2Co 3:6; 2Co 3:8-9).
5. None of these means are efficacious apart from prayer (Act 2:42; Act 4:29; Act 6:4; Act 9:15; 1Co 10:16; Eph 6:18-19; Col 4:3-4; 2Th 3:1).
IV. The gift is inward, and not outward.
1. It is not outward.
2. The outward is not altogether excluded.
3. The decision comes from within. The ultimate court of appeal for each one of us is his own conscience.
V. The unction consecrates us to be–
1. Prophets.
2. Priests.
3. Kings (Rev 5:10; Rev 20:6; Rev 22:5).
VI. The ointment is fragrant (Exo 30:22-33).
1. With the fragrance of sacrifice to God (2Co 2:15-16; Php 4:18).
2. With the fragrance of a holy life. (J. J. Lias, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 20. But ye have an unction] The word signifies not an unction, but an ointment, the very thing itself by which anointing is effected; and so it was properly rendered in our former translations. Probably this is an allusion to the holy anointing oil of the law, and to Ps 14:7: God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness-he hath given thee the plenitude of the Spirit, which none of thy fellows-none of the prophets, ever received in such abundance. By this it is evident that not only the gifts of the Spirit, but the Holy Spirit himself, is intended. This Spirit dwelt at that time in a peculiar manner in the Church, to teach apostles, teachers, and all the primitive believers, every thing requisite for their salvation; and to make them the instruments of handing down to posterity that glorious system of truth which is contained in the New Testament. As oil was used among the Asiatics for the inauguration of persons into important offices, and this oil was acknowledged to be an emblem of the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, without which the duties of those offices could not be discharged; so it is put here for the Spirit himself, who presided in the Church, and from which all gifts and graces flowed. The , chrism or ointment here mentioned is also an allusion to the holy anointing ointment prescribed by God himself, Ex 30:23-25, which was composed of fine myrrh, sweet cinnamon, sweet calamus, cassia lignea, and olive oil. This was an emblem of the gifts and graces of the Divine Spirit. See the notes on the above place. And for the reason of this anointing See Clarke on Ex 29:7.
Ye know all things.] Every truth Of God necessary to your salvation and the salvation of man in general, and have no need of that knowledge of which the Gnostics boast.
But although the above is the sense in which this verse is generally understood, yet there is reason to doubt its accuracy. The adjective , which we translate all things, is most probably in the accusative case singular, having , man, or some such substantive, understood. The verse therefore should be translated: Ye have an ointment from the Holy One, and ye know or discern EVERY MAN. This interpretation appears to be confirmed by in 1Jo 2:26, those who are deceiving or misleading you; and in the same sense should , 1Jo 2:27, be understood: But as the same anointing teacheth you , not of all things, but of ALL MEN. It is plain, from the whole tenor of the epistle, that St. John is guarding the Christians against seducers and deceivers, who were even then disturbing and striving to corrupt the Church. In consequence of this he desires them to try the spirits whether they were of God, 1Jo 4:1. But how were they to try them? Principally by that anointing-that spiritual light and discernment which they had received from God; and also by comparing the doctrine of these men with what they had heard from the beginning. The anointing here mentioned seems to mean the spirit of illumination, or great knowledge and discernment in spiritual things. By this they could readily distinguish the false apostles from the true.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
See Poole on “1Jo 2:27“.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
20. ButGreek, “And.”He here states the means which they as believers have wherewith towithstand. Antichrists (1Jo2:18), namely, the chrism (so the Greek: a playupon similar sounds), or “anointing unguent,” namely, theHoly Spirit (more plainly mentioned further on, as in John’s style,1Jn 3:24; 1Jn 4:13;1Jn 5:6), which they (“ye”is emphatical in contrast to those apostates, 1Jo2:19) have “from the Holy One, Christ” (Joh 1:33;Joh 3:34; Joh 15:26;Joh 16:14): “the righteous”(1Jo 2:1), “pure” (1Jo3:3), “the Holy One” (Ac3:14) “of God”; Mr1:24. Those anointed of God in Christ alone can resistthose anointed with the spirit of Satan, Antichrists, whowould sever them from the Father and from the Son. Believers have theanointing Spirit from the Father also, as well as from theSon; even as the Son is anointed therewith by the Father. Hence theSpirit is the token that we are in the Father and in the Son; withoutit a man is none of Christ. The material unguent of costliestingredients, poured on the head of priests and kings, typified thisspiritual unguent, derived from Christ, the Head, to us, His members.We can have no share in Him as Jesus, except we become trulyChristians, and so be in Him as Christ, anointed withthat unction from the Holy One. The Spirit poured on Christ, theHead, is by Him diffused through all the members. “It appearsthat we all are the body of Christ, because we all areanointed: and we all in Him are both Christ’s and Christ,because in some measure the whole Christ is Head and body.”
andtherefore.
ye know all thingsneedfulfor acting aright against Antichrist’s seductions, and for Christianlife and godliness. In the same measure as one hath the Spirit,in that measure (no more and no less) he knows all these things.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But ye have an unction from the Holy One,…. Meaning the Spirit, and his graces, with which Christ, the head, is anointed without measure, and his members in measure; from whence he is called Christ, and they Christians. These were really the Lord’s anointed ones; they were true believers; were the wise virgins who had oil in their vessels with their lamps, which would never go out. The grace of the Spirit is called a chrism, or an ointment, or an anointing, in allusion to the anointing oil under the law;
[See comments on Mt 25:3]; of which anointing oil the Jews say h, that it continues all of it, , “to time to come”, (i.e. to the times of the Messiah,) as it is said, Ex 30:31. Now this these saints had, “from the Holy One”; or that Holy One; meaning, not the Holy Spirit of God, though it is true that this anointing, or these graces, were from him; he is the author of them, and may truly be said to anoint with them; nor the Father, who is holy in his nature, and in his works, and is the God of all grace, and is said to anoint the saints too, 2Co 1:21, but rather the Lord Jesus Christ, who is holy, both as God and man, and from whose fulness all grace is had. This oil, or ointment, was first poured on him without measure, and from him it descends to all the members of his mystical body, as the ointment poured on Aaron’s head descended to his beard, and to the skirts of his garments; see 1Jo 2:27;
and ye know all things; for this anointing is a teaching one; it makes persons of quick understanding; it enlightens their understandings, refreshes their memories, and strengthens all the powers and faculties of the soul; it leads into the knowledge of all spiritual things, into all the mysteries of grace, and truths of the Gospel, into all things necessary for salvation; for these words are not to be taken in the largest sense, in which they are only applicable to the omniscient God, but to be restrained to the subject matter treated of, and to those things chiefly in which the antichrists and deceivers cited; and regard not a perfect knowledge, for those that know most of these things, under the influence of this unction, know but in part. The Syriac version reads, “all men”, and so refers to that discerning of spirits, of the Spirit of truth, from the spirit of error; a gift which was bestowed on many in the primitive times, by which they could distinguish hypocrites from true believers, and antichrists and deceivers from the faithful ministers of the word. One of Stephens’s copies reads, “and ye all know”.
h T. Hieros. Horayot, fol. 47. 3.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Concerning Antichrist. | A. D. 80. |
20 But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. 21 I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. 22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. 23 Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also. 24 Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. 26 These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. 27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
Here, I. The apostle encourages the disciples (to whom he writes) in these dangerous times, in this hour of seducers; he encourages them in the assurance of their stability in this day of apostasy: But you have an unction from the Holy One, and you know all things. We see, 1. The blessing wherewith they were enriched–an unguent from heaven: You have an unction. True Christians are anointed ones, their name intimates as much. They are anointed with the oil of grace, with gifts and spiritual endowments, by the Spirit of grace. They are anointed into a similitude of their Lord’s offices, as subordinate prophets, priests, and kings, unto God. The Holy Spirit is compared to oil, as well as to fire and water; and the communication of his salvific grace is our anointing. 2. From whom this blessing comes–from the Holy One, either from the Holy Ghost or from the Lord Christ, as Rev. iii. 7, These things saith he that is holy–the Holy One. The Lord Christ is glorious in his holiness. The Lord Christ disposes of the graces of the divine Spirit, and he anoints the disciples to make them like himself, and to secure them in his interest. 3. The effect of this unction–it is a spiritual eye-salve; it enlightens and strengthens the eyes of the understanding: “And thereby you know all things (v. 20), all these things concerning Christ and his religion; it was promised and given you for that end,” John xiv. 26. The Lord Christ does not deal alike by all his professed disciples; some are more anointed than others. There is great danger lest those that are not thus anointed should be so far from being true to Christ that they should, on the contrary, turn antichrists, and prove adversaries to Christ’s person, and kingdom, and glory.
II. The apostle indicates to them the mind and meaning with which he wrote to them. 1. By way of negation; not as suspecting their knowledge, or supposing their ignorance in the grand truths of the gospel: “I have not written unto you because you know not the truth, v. 21. I could not then be so well assured of your stability therein, nor congratulate you on your unction from above.” It is good to surmise well concerning our Christian brethren; we ought to do so till evidence overthrows our surmise: a just confidence in religious persons may both encourage and contribute to their fidelity. 2. By way of assertion and acknowledgment, as relying upon their judgment in these things: But because you know it (you know the truth in Jesus), and that no lie is of the truth. Those who know the truth in any respect are thereby prepared to discern what is contrary thereto and inconsistent therewith. Rectum est index sui et obliqui–The line which shows itself to be straight shows also what line is crooked. Truth and falsehood do not well mix and suit together. Those that are well acquainted with Christian truth are thereby well fortified against antichristian error and delusion. No lie belongs to religion, either natural or revealed. The apostles most of all condemned lies, and showed the inconsistency of lies with their doctrine: they would have been the most self-condemned persons had they propagated the truth by lies. It is a commendation of the Christian religion that it so well accords with natural religion, which is the foundation of it, that it so well accords with the Jewish religion, which contained the elements or rudiments of it. No lie is of the truth; frauds and impostures then are very unfit means to support and propagate the truth. I suppose it had been better with the state of religion if they had never been used. The result of them appears in the infidelity of our age; the detection of ancient pious frauds and wiles has almost run our age into atheism and irreligion; but the greatest actors and sufferers for the Christian revelation would assure us that no lie is of the truth.
III. The apostle further impleads and arraigns these seducers who had newly arisen. 1. They are liars, egregious opposers of sacred truth: Who is a liar, or the liar, the notorious liar of the time and age in which we live, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? The great and pernicious lies that the father of lies, or of liars, spreads in the world, were of old, and usually are, falsehoods and errors relating to the person of Christ. There is no truth so sacred and fully attested but some or other will contradict or deny it. That Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God had been attested by heaven, and earth, and hell. It should seem that some, in the tremendous judgment of God, are given up to strong delusions. 2. They are direst enemies to God as well as to the Lord Christ: He is antichrist who denieth the Father and the Son, v. 22. He that opposes Christ denies the witness and testimony of the Father, and the seal that he hath given to his Son; for him hath God the Father sealed, John vi. 27. And he that denies the witness and testimony of the Father, concerning Jesus Christ denies that God is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently abandons the knowledge of God in Christ, and thereupon the whole revelation of God in Christ, and particularly of God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself; and therefore the apostle may well infer, Whosoever denies the Son the same has not the Father (v. 23); he has not the true knowledge of the Father, for the Son has most and best revealed him; he has no interest in the Father, in his favour, and grace, and salvation, for none cometh to the Father but by the Son. But, as some copies add, he that acknowledgeth the Son has the Father also, v. 23. As there is an intimate relation between the Father and the Son, so there is an inviolable union in the doctrine, knowledge, and interests of both; so that he who has the knowledge of, and right to, the Son, has the knowledge of, and right to, the Father also. Those that adhere to the Christian revelation hold the light and benefit of natural religion withal.
IV. Hereupon the apostle advises and persuades the disciples to continue in the old doctrine at first communicated to them: Let that therefore abide in you which you have heard from the beginning, v. 24. Truth is older than error. The truth concerning Christ, that was at first delivered to the saints, is not to be exchanged for novelties. So sure were the apostles of the truth of what they had delivered concerning Christ, and from him, that after all their toils and sufferings they were not willing to relinquish it. The Christian truth may plead antiquity, and be recommended thereby. This exhortation is enforced by these considerations:–
1. From the sacred advantage they will receive by adhering to the primitive truth and faith. (1.) They will continue thereby in holy union with God and Christ: If that which you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, you also shall continue in the Son and in the Father, v. 24. It is the truth of Christ abiding in us that is the means of severing us from sin and uniting us to the Son of God, Joh 15:3; Joh 15:4. The Son is the medium or the Mediator by whom we are united to the Father. What value then should we put upon gospel truth! (2.) They will thereby secure the promise of eternal life: And this is the promise that he (even God the Father, ch. v. 11) hath promised us, even eternal life, v. 25. Great is the promise that God makes to his faithful adherents. It is suitable to his own greatness, power, and goodness. It is eternal life, which none but God can give. The blessed God puts great value upon his Son, and the truth relating to him, when he is pleased to promise to those who continue in that truth (under the light, and power, and influence of it) eternal life. Then the exhortation aforesaid is enforced,
2. From the design of the apostle’s writing to them. This letter is to fortify them against the deceivers of the age: “These things have I written to you concerning those that seduce you (v. 26), and therefore, if you continue not in what you have heard from the beginning, my writing and service will be in vain.” We should beware lest the apostolical letters, yea, lest the whole scripture of God, should be to us insignificant and fruitless. I have written to him the great things of my law (and my gospel too), but they were counted as a strange thing, Hos. viii. 12.
3. From the instructive blessing they had received from heaven: But the anointing which you have received from him abideth in you, v. 27. True Christians have an inward confirmation of the divine truth they have imbibed: the Holy Spirit has imprinted it on their minds and hearts. It is meet that the Lord Jesus should have a constant witness in the hearts of his disciples. The unction, the pouring out of the gifts of grace upon sincere disciples, is a seal to the truth and doctrine of Christ, since none giveth that seal but God. Now he who establisheth us with you (and you with us) in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God, 2 Cor. i. 21. This sacred chrism, or divine unction, is commended on these accounts:– (1.) It is durable and lasting; oil or unguent is not so soon dried up as water: it abideth in you, v. 27. Divine illumination, in order to confirmation, must be something continued or constant. Temptations, snares, and seductions, arise. The anointing must abide. (2.) It is better than human instruction: “And you need not that any man teach you, v. 27. Not that this anointing will teach you without the appointed ministry. It could, if God so pleased; but it will not, though it will teach you better than we can: And you need not that any man teach you, v. 27. You were instructed by us before you were anointed; but now our teaching is nothing in comparison to that. Who teacheth like him?” Job xxxvi. 22. The divine unction does not supersede ministerial teaching, but surmount it. (3.) It is a sure evidence of truth, and all that it teaches is infallible truth: But as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, v. 27. The Holy Spirit must needs be the Spirit of truth, as he is called, John xiv. 17. The instruction and illumination that he affords must needs be in and of the truth. The Spirit of truth will not lie; and he teacheth all things, that is, all things in the present dispensation, all things necessary to our knowledge of God in Christ, and their glory in the gospel. And, (4.) It is of a conservative influence; it will preserve those in whom it abides against seducers and their seduction: “And even as it hath taught you you shall abide in him, v. 27. It teaches you to abide in Christ; and, as it teaches you, it secures you; it lays a restraint upon your minds and hearts, that you may not revolt from him. And he that hath anointed us is God, who also hath sealed us for himself, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.” 2Co 1:21; 2Co 1:22.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Anointing (). Old word for result () and for the material, from , to anoint, perhaps suggested by the use of in verse 18. Christians are “anointed ones,” in this sense, with which compare Ps 105:15: “Touch not my anointed ones” ( ). These antichrists posed as the equals of or even superior to Christ himself. But followers of Christ do have “the oil of anointing” ( , Ex 29:7), the Holy Spirit. This word in the N.T. only here and verse 27. Later the term was applied to baptism after baptismal remission came to be taught (Tertullian, etc.).
From the Holy One ( ). They receive this anointing of the Holy Spirit from the Anointed One, Jesus Christ (the Holy One). Cf. John 6:69; Acts 3:14.
And ye know all things ( ). But the best MSS. read rather than , “Ye all know it.” This anointing is open to all Christians, not just a select few.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
An unction [] . The word means that with which the anointing is performed – the unguent or ointment. In the New Testament only here and ver. 27. Rev., an anointing. The root of this word and of Cristov, Christ, is the same. See on Mt 1:1. the anointing is from the Anointed.
The Holy One. Christ. See Joh 6:69; Act 3:14; Act 4:27, 30; Rev 3:7. Ye know all things [ . ] . The best texts read pantev, ye all know; in which case the connection is with the following clause : “I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it.”
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “But ye have an unction from the Holy One. John testifies, affirms that the believing fathers, young men, and children to whom he wrote had or held an unction (Greek charisma) meaning anointing, empowering from the Holy One (Greek hagiou) meaning the Holy Spirit, Vice-gerent, representative of Jesus Christ in His Church. See Col 1:21.
2) “And ye know all things”. (Greek oidate) means ye know, perceive, or comprehend, (Greek pantes) all things – things about which he had written and was writing them. It is the Holy Spirit’s special unction and anointing that enables His children to comprehend, perceive, all kinds of worldliness and apostasy that confronts them. The Spirit gives light in darkness according to the Word of truth. 1Th 5:1-5; Joh 16:13; 2Ti 3:16-17.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
20 But ye have an unction. The Apostle modestly excuses himself for having so earnestly warned them, lest they should think that they were indirectly reproved, as though they were rude and ignorant of those things which they ought to have well known. So Paul conceded wisdom to the Romans, that they were able and fit to admonish others. He at the same time shewed that they stood in need of being reminded, in order that they might rightly perform their duty. (Rom 15:14.) The Apostles did not, however, speak thus in order to flatter them; but they thus wisely took heed lest their doctrine should be rejected by any, for they declared what was suitable and useful, not only to the ignorant, but also to those well instructed in the Lord’s school.
Experience teaches us how fastidious the ears of men are. Such fastidiousness ought indeed to be far away from the godly; it yet behooves a faithful and wise teacher to omit nothing by which he may secure a hearing from all. And it is certain that we receive what is said with less attention and respect, when we think that he who speaks disparages the knowledge which has been given us by the Lord. The Apostle by this praise did at the same time stimulate his readers, because they who were endued with the gift of knowledge, had less excuse if they did not surpass others in their proficiency.
The state of the case is, that the Apostle did not teach them as though they were ignorant, and acquainted only with the first elements of knowledge, but reminded them of things already known, and also exhorted them to rouse up the sparks of the Spirit, that a full brightness might shine forth in them. And in the next words he explained himself, having denied that he wrote to them because they knew not the truth, but because they had been well taught in it; for had they been wholly ignorant and novices, they could not have comprehended his doctrine.
Now, when he says that they knew all things, it is not to be taken in the widest sense, but ought to be confined to the subject treated of here. But when he says that they had an unction from the Holy One, he alludes, no doubt, to the ancient types. The oil by which the priests were anointed was obtained from the sanctuary; and Daniel mentions the coming of Christ as the proper time for anointing the Most Holy. (Dan 9:24.) For he was anointed by the Father, that he might pour forth on us a manifold abundance from his own fullness. It hence follows that men are not rightly made wise by the acumen of their own minds, but by the illumination of the Spirit; and further, that we are not otherwise made partakers of the Spirit than through Christ, who is the true sanctuary and our only high priest. (70)
(70) “From the Holy One,” from the Father, say some; from the Son, say others; from the Holy Spirit, according to a third party. By comparing this verse with 1Jo 2:27, we see reason to conclude that the “Holy One” is Christ, who had promised the Spirit to teach his people. The unction, or the anointing, is the act of the Spirit by which the truth is taught. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
1Jn. 2:20. Unction from the Holy One.Or, anointing. The association of the Spirit coming to a man, when anointed to a Divine office, may be seen in the case of the kings Saul and David. Each believer, in the early Church, received an anointing from God in the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit. Know all things.Led by the Spirit into all truth, and therefore guarded against the attractions of error. Some read, you all knowthat is, you are in possession of the true knowledge (Joh. 16:13).
1Jn. 2:22. A liar.Better, the liar. The Christ.I.e. the Messiah. Denieth the Father and the Son.Three tests by which the spirit of antichrist may be recognised. It will be found to oppose the Messiahship, and the Sonship of Jesus, and the Fatherhood of God. These tests of orthodoxy are seldom applied now, or indeed regarded as sufficient.
1Jn. 2:23.The second part of this verse the R.V. preserves, and reads thus, he that confessed the Son hath the Father also.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.1Jn. 2:20-23
The First and Supreme Christian Truth.Jesus is the Christ. But this is repeated and explained. St. John shows how much is involved in it.
I. Jesus is the Christ.This is the first apprehension of Jesus that can be gained. This begins the differentiation of Jesus from other men. There were other men named Jesus (Joshua), but this man stands out distinct from them all. He appeared before the Jews, and the first thing they were asked to do was to recognise in Him their long-expected Messiah. St. Peter expressed what all should have felt, when he said, Thou art the Christ [Messiah] of God. This first faith concerning Christ does not of course come so freshly and so powerfully to us as it did to the Jews of our Lords time; but we may apprehend what is always the first call of faith to us, if we express it in this formwe must believe in Jesus as the sent One. Jesus is commonplace and ordinary until we have that belief concerning Him. Then he becomes intensely interesting to us. He has a message: it may be that He is a message. We must know concerning this unique Man.
II. Jesus is the Son.Fix exclusive attention upon Him, watch His doings, listen to His words, and it will increasingly be impressed upon you that what He is embodying in a human life is sonship; and it is so evidently beyond anything ever attainable by man, that you are compelled to call it a Divine Sonship. You find your faith claimed for the truth that He is the Son of God.
III. The Son implies the Father.When Jesus is known, you find that God is known. The Son implies that He who sent Him is the Father. And so you gain the truth that is worthy of all acceptation, and in the acceptance of which is eternal life. The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
1Jn. 2:20. The Unction from the Holy One.The word rendered unction signifies anointing oil. Its reference is to the anointing of men who were set apart to special Divine service. The act of anointing was the symbolical act of consecration; the oil symbolised the endowments with which God fitted them for their work. The sacred oil with which the priests were consecrated, compounded of rich and varied medicaments, was the symbol of the manifold endowments of the Holy Spirit which should be given to all Gods consecrated people. The virtue of Christian consecration, and specially its power to discern between truth and error, is the present subject. The word unction might be changed to chrism, which immediately suggests the word Christ. John is intending to contrast the chrism with the antichrist, the Spirit with which Christians are endowed because of their fellowship with Christ with the spirit of error that is opposed to Him. The coming of antichrist was the sign of the last times. We too witness many antichrists, subtle signs of a spirit opposed to Christ revealing itself in many and diverse ways. We know that we are exposed to these seductions,falsehood wearing the garb of truth; many a time-honoured habit and tradition concealing an essential denial of Christ; a spirit and a tone in society, and in the Church itself, and sanctioned by venerated names, which involve nothing less than the rejection of the precepts and teachings of the gospel. And John here affirms that we are safe against these things in the possession of the Spirit of Christ. In our consecration to Him, in our fellowship with His anointing, is given us a Spirit that cannot be deceived.
I. This is a common Christian endowment.It is to a body of Christian disciples that John is writing. So simple are some of them that he calls them little children. John speaks of a gift bestowed upon all alike in their very consecration to Christ, and involved in that consecration,the endowment of a Spirit, the Spirit of the Holy One, in which all are sharers; a Divine instinct, which enables those who receive it to look on what is true and good, and recognise it; to look on error, and on evil, and at once detect it.
II. Observe what this Spirit is which is given us in our consecration, and by which we are enabled to discern the truth of things.
1. It is the spirit of the consecration itself. Decision of purpose is the secret of directness of judgment. We shake ourselves free from the influence of many a deluding motive; we are able to look right through plausibilities and discern hidden falsehood; we are delivered from confusion in the simple fact of our acceptance of one aim in life. When you resolved that you would follow Christ, you felt that you had attained a new power of judgment. A truer spirit, a spirit clearer and more confident, was yours in your consecration.
2. It is the Spirit of Christa chrism from Christ, who was Himself the anointed One. The mind that was in Christ is given to us; we are partakers of the Spirit of Jesus.
3. The spirit of consecration is the spirit of devotedness to our fellows. Priests and kings were anointed in symbol of their dedication to the service of their brethren. The Spirit of the Lord was on Christ, endowing Him for service. We share in Christs consecration; His purpose is ours; ours too is the Spirit that dwelt in Him. The devotion to men which we have learnt from Christ will be our protection. Our fellowship is with Christs love and hopefulness; a Spirit devoted to men like His to men is given us, and by this Spirit we discern all things. Christian character is the director of Christian life. The true heart of Christ within us is never-failing discernment, clearness of decision, promptitude of resolve, and stability of will. The Spirit of Christ is the possession of all who consecrate themselves to Him.A. Mackennal, B.A., D.D.
The Oil of the Spirit.I need not remind you how, in the old system, prophets, priests, and kings were anointed with consecrating oil, as a symbol of their calling, and of their fitness for their special offices. The reason for the use of such a symbol would lie in the invigorating, and in the supposed, and possibly real, health-giving effect of the use of oil in those climates. Whatever may have been the reason for the use of oil in official anointings, the meaning of the act was plain. It was a preparation for a specific and distinct service. And so, when we read of the oil of the Spirit, we are to think that it is that which fits us for being prophets, priests, and kings, and which calls us because it fits us for these functions. You are anointed to be prophets, that you may make known Him who has loved and saved you, and may go about the world evidently inspired to show forth His praise, and make His name glorious. That anointing calls and fits you to be priests, mediators between God and manbringing God to men, and, by pleading and persuasion, and the presentation of the truth, drawing men to God. That unction calls and fits you to be kings, exercising authority over the little monarchy of your own natures, and over the men around you, who will bow in submission whenever they come in contact with a man evidently aflame with the love of Jesus Christ, and filled with His Spirit. The world is hard and rude; the world is blind and stupid; the world often fails to know its best benefactors; but there is no crust of stupidity so crass and dense but that through it there will pass the penetrating shafts of light that ray from the face of a man who walks in fellowship with Jesus.A. Maclaren, D.D.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
5. The purifying unction will preserve you from uniting with the antichristic revolt, 1Jn 2:20-29.
20. But Rather, , and. It connects with continued, and proceeds to show how his readers may continue in the catholic body; namely, by unction of the Spirit; by using their perfect knowledge of the true apostolic doctrine; and by a firm determination of the will to abide.
Unction A chrism or anointing oil. The anointing with oil in the dry climate of the east is a means of bodily health and comfort. Hence the anointing-oil became a symbol of divine benediction. In this view, not only in ancient Israel, but even in ancient Egypt, the anointing ceremony was used in inducting kings and priests into their sacred office. Compare Exo 40:15; Num 3:3; Jdg 9:8; Jdg 9:15; 1Sa 9:16 ; 1Sa 10:1; 1Ki 1:34; 1Ki 1:39. “The Lord’s anointed” was, indeed, the king’s title. The word Christ signifies anointed, as chrism signifies the oil or the anointment. Note on Mat 1:1. And here the unction, or chrism, is used in contrast to the antichrists, who left Christ and became antichrists, because they had no such sanctifying chrism.
Know all things All, the whole doctrine of Christ; missing which the antichrists revolted.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all the things (or ‘you all know’).’
Unlike these men, the orthodox church leaders, who followed and looked to the apostolic teaching, retained the basic truths, and all their true followers did so too. And that was because they had ‘an anointing from the Holy One’. This meant that they ‘know all things’. This last phrase, if correct (see below), echoes Joh 14:26 and suggests that here John is speaking of the Holy Spirit as having been given to them and as illuminating them and keeping them in the truth. The Holy Spirit was the seal that a man was a Christian (Eph 1:13; Eph 4:30), and the revealer of truth (1Co 2:10-16). We shall now consider the matter in more detail.
The antichrists, by virtue of their title, were in some way anointed ones, for christos means anointed. Thus John reminds the true people of God that they too are anointed ones, and are anointed with One Who is true.
‘You have an anointing from the Holy One.’ The word for ‘anointing’ appears only three times in the New Testament, here and twice in 1Jn 2:27. It signifies ‘that with which someone is anointed’. It initially had within it in the Old Testament the idea of the application of oil for the purpose of setting a man aside in God’s service. The question therefore here is whether it refers to such a literal ‘means of anointing’ (that is, the oil or ointment itself which is applied to someone), or an anointing with the ‘anointing’, that is, with the Holy Spirit, where the Holy Spirit replaces the oil.
The Old Testament background to the term includes the use of anointing oil for purposes of consecration, but that that anointing could be connected with the coming of the Holy Spirit on a man is demonstrated in 1Sa 16:13. There Samuel anointed David, and the Spirit of Yahweh came on him with power. Even more significantly, in Isa 61:1 the coming of the Spirit on the Servant of Yahweh was paralleled with his having been ‘anointed’ in order to proclaim the good news and exercise delivering power. The Spirit seems now to have become the means of anointing, or at least very closely associated with it.
This figurative use is clearly demonstrated in the New Testament. In Act 10:38 Peter says that God ‘anointed Him (Jesus) with the Holy Spirit’, while in Act 4:27 the whole group speak of ‘your Servant Jesus Whom You anointed’, a probable reference back to Isa 61:1 (compare Luk 4:18), and probably having in mind His experience of the Holy Spirit at His baptism (emphasised in all four Gospels – Mat 3:16-17; Mar 1:10-11; Luk 3:22; Joh 1:32-33). This word in Act 4:27 was followed by the whole group being ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’. On the basis of these references it seems highly probable that the use of the word ‘anointing’ here refers not to a literal anointing with oil (as in Jas 5:14) but to an anointing with the Holy Spirit in line with what we have seen above.
This would seem to be confirmed by the fact that 1Jn 2:27 speaks of ‘the anointing which you received of Him — as His anointing teaches you concerning all things and is true and is no lie’. Note the emphasis on the fact that the anointing is ‘received’, that it teaches ‘concerning all things’, and that it is ‘true’, the very antithesis to the lie. This reflects the language in Joh 14:17; Joh 15:26 (‘the Spirit of truth’); Joh 14:26 (‘will teach you all things’); Joh 16:13 (‘will guide you into all truth’); Joh 7:39 (‘this spoke He of the Spirit which those who believed on Him were to receive’) and Joh 20:22 (‘receive Holy Spirit’). Compare also Act 2:33; Act 2:38; 1Co 1:22-23. This is further confirmed by the fact that in 1Jn 5:7 it is the Spirit Who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth
Some have suggested that the anointing was to be seen as signifying the word, but it is noteworthy that John in fact did not refer to the ‘word’ spoken at Jesus’ baptism (Joh 1:32-33), his concentration being on reception of the Holy Spirit, and anointing is never actually spoken of as ‘of the word’. But certainly the Holy Spirit was regularly received as a result of the preaching of the word (e.g. Act 10:44), and Jesus’ reception of the Spirit was accompanied by God’s word from Heaven in the other Gospels. And here in 1Jn 2:24 in context there is the thought of the word which they first heard. We may therefore see the anointing as the Spirit coming through the word. For none would doubt that that word came through the Spirit, so that we may see Spirit and word as going together. It was the Spirit revealing God through the word that was the basis of men’s reception of salvation, and was the evidence that they were Christians (Rom 8:9) and the word of the cross was the power of God to salvation (1Co 1:18). When the Spirit had anointed them it had been through their reception of the word.
Thus what John is saying here is that those who are true believers have an anointing with the Holy Spirit which has confirmed in them the truth through His word so that they have not been led astray. Those who are His have received the Spirit and the word. It should be noted that John says of those who have departed that they ‘were not of us’. Thus while they may well have been in membership of the church he did not see them as ever having been genuine Christians, the implication being that they had not been anointed in the Spirit through the word while the true believers had. The further implication is that those who have been so anointed will be kept in the truth.
‘From the Holy One.’ Of Whom was John speaking when he spoke of ‘the Holy One’? It is unlikely to signify the Holy Spirit because He is never described elsewhere as the Holy One, and had he meant the Holy Spirit he would surely have said so. Indeed the use of the title strongly suggests that it is so used precisely because the anointing is with the ‘Holy’ Spirit.
Thus we are faced with two alternatives. The reference may be to God, or to Jesus. A reference to God has been suggested here because: (1) in the Old Testament there are references to God as “the Holy One of Israel” (Isa 1:4 and often in Isaiah; Psa 71:22). (2) There is at least one clear reference in the LXX which uses this very phrase (Hab 3:3). (3) In 1Jn 3:24; 1Jn 4:13 it is God who gives the Holy Spirit to believers. (4) In the two passages from the Gospel of John which are most parallel to 1Jn 2:20; 1Jn 2:27 (Joh 14:16-17; Joh 14:26) it is the Father who sends the Holy Spirit.
But it can be argued most strongly that a reference to Jesus Christ is most probable here for the following reasons. Firstly that Jesus is called ‘the Holy One of God’ in Mar 1:24; Luk 4:34, and Joh 6:69, and is called ‘the Holy One’ exactly as here in both Act 3:14 and Rev 3:7. Thus Jesus was well known as ‘the Holy One’, and is so depicted by John. Secondly because in Joh 15:26; Joh 16:7 it is Jesus Who is depicted as sending the Holy Spirit. Thirdly because in Act 2:33 it is Jesus Who is again portrayed as pouring out the Holy Spirit, and finally because 1Jn 2:27 speaks of ‘the anointing which you received from Him’ where ‘Him’ seems to refer to Jesus, for the promise of eternal life in 1Jn 2:25 was more directly given by Jesus (Joh 5:24; Joh 10:28) (although as often in the letter the reference is not absolutely certain. God’s commandment was eternal life – Joh 12:50). In 1Jn 2:28 the reference is definitely to Jesus.
The main point, however, is to stress that the anointing came from the ‘Holy One’, the unique One, the One set apart from and above all others in His distinctive holiness. In the end both Father and Son were the Holy One.
‘You know all things.’ There is a textual problem here in that the manuscripts are divided between ‘you know all things’ (panta) and ‘you all (pantes) know’. Pantes is read by Aleph B sa etc. On the other hand A C vg etc. have the accusative panta. The manuscript evidence may therefore be seen as favouring pantes, but not conclusively. Comparison with 1Jn 2:27 favours panta. But it could be argued that 1Jn 2:27 and Joh 14:26; Joh 16:30 have influenced the change here.
If we read panta the idea is that the Spirit leads them to know all things as in 1Jn 2:27. If we read pantes it is that all who have received the anointing will know the truth. Both are in line with John’s thinking.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Jn 2:20. But ye have an unction, &c. Both kings and priests were consecrated to their offices by anointing; and in the New Testament, wherein the title of kings and priests is given to true believers, by anointing we are to understand any divine grace imparted to true believers. The apostle’s meaning therefore is to this effect: “The Spirit of truth and holiness, which Christ the Holy One of God hath poured forth upon you, is to guide you into all truth; so that you havean experimental knowledge of all things relating to the pure gospel, at least so far as is necessary to salvation.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Jn 2:20-21 . Testimony that the believers, to whom the apostle writes, know the truth.
] The apostle writes this neither as a captatio benevolentiae (Lange), nor as a justification of the brevity of his writing on the foregoing subject (a Lapide), nor for the purpose of quieting his readers, “who at the appearance of so many Antichrists might possibly be alarmed for the safety of their own faith” (Lcke), but in order to make the warning contained in his words in reference to the antichristian lie the more forcible; see on 1Jn 2:12 .
Most commentators take here as particula adversativa (so even de Wette; more cautiously Lcke: “the logical relationship of this verse to 1Jn 2:19 is that of an antithesis, therefore becomes logically adversative”); the incorrectness of this view is recognised indeed by Dsterdieck and Ebrard, yet they maintain the antithetical reference of this verse to the preceding one; and of course in itself there is nothing against the supposition of a connection of adversative ideas by the simple copula; but that an adversative relationship occurs here is very much to be doubted, for the apostle did not now need to say to his readers that they, as such as have the , were in opposition to the antichrists, and, besides, in the sequel that idea is not further followed up. [165] It is more suitable to the context to connect the first part of this verse closely with the second, and in this two-claused sentence to find the presupposition stated for what is said in the following verse (so also Brckner).
appears in the N. T. only here and in 1Jn 2:27 ; according to Greek usus loquendi , it is the anointing oil; as in the O. T., for example Exo 29:7 ; Exo 30:31 . “In the O. T. the holy anointing oil is constantly the type of the Holy Spirit, both where anointing appears as a figurative action (besides the passages quoted, in 1Sa 10:1 ff; 1Sa 16:13-14 ) as well as where it appears in figurative language (Psa 45:8 ; Isa 61:1 ). But that which in the O. T. is presented in type and shadow, in the N. T. has appeared in truth and substance” (Besser); is therefore a symbolical expression for the Holy Spirit , as , moreover, is frequently used of the gift of the Holy Spirit; comp. Act 4:27 ; Act 10:38 ; 2Co 1:21 . With this most of the commentators agree, only that is usually incorrectly explained as the act: “unctio, anointing,” and this is then taken as a description of the Holy Spirit; so by Augustin, and even by de Wette, Ewald, Sander, and Erdmann. It is erroneous to understand of the “true tradition about Christ, vividly transmitted, proceeding from the apostles” (Kstlin, p. 243), or of the working of the Holy Spirit (Didymus: charitas, quae diffunditur in cordibus nostris per spiritum sanctum; Socinus: divinum beneficium cognoscendi ipsas res divinas, quatenus homini est opus; Emanuel Sa: christianismus), or of the act in which the Spirit is given to Christians, thus of baptism (Ewald) or of confirmation. Oecumenius wrongly finds here ( , ) an allusion to the old custom of anointing the candidate for baptism; this custom does not belong to the apostolic age, but was probably first introduced by this passage, as Bengel has observed. [166] It is, on the whole, less likely that John was here thinking of the communication of the Spirit by means of baptism, as is usually supposed, than that he was thinking of that by means of the preaching of the gospel (Dsterdieck), as in the whole context there is nothing to suggest the former. [167] That John uses just the word is not without meaning; as in the O. T. not only kings, but also priests and (sometimes) prophets were anointed, he reminds believers thereby “of their high honour, calling, office, and glory” (Sander). [168] If it be the case that there is also an allusion in it to the name of the Antichrist (Bengel, Dsterdieck), then the apostle wanted to bring out that believers in possession of the are enabled fully to know the antichristian in its contradiction to the ; see 1Jn 2:21 .
] For , in 1Jn 2:27 , is put; the possession rests upon a reception, and this, indeed, ; is following the correct interpretation of not the Holy Spirit (Didymus, Lorinus, Semler), but either God (Rickli, Besser, Neander: “ indicates the source;” which, however, is not always the case), comp. Joh 14:16 ; 1Co 6:19 : , , or more probably, as most commentators think, Christ; comp. Joh 15:26 : , ; and Joh 6:69 , where Christ (according to the overwhelming authorities) is called ; in favour of which is the fact that John, in 1Jn 2:29 , calls Christ , and in chap. 1Jn 3:3 , (comp. also Act 3:14 ; Rev 3:7 ).
That the bestower of the is called by John (whether it be God or Christ) arises from this, that the anointing with the Spirit is an act of making holy, i.e. of separation from the world; but he only can make holy who himself is holy.
] Bengel, according to the sense, explains correctly by: et inde; the possession of the is the reason of the .
is not masculine (Syrus: omnes; Bede: discernitis inter probos et improbos), but neuter. Calvin rightly says: omnia, non universaliter capi, sed ad praesentis loci circumstantiam restringi debet; still it must not be restricted merely to those things (quae sunt) necessaria agnoscendis antichristis et cavendis illorum insidiis (Bengel), but it embraces along with these in general (1Jn 2:21 ); comp. Joh 14:26 ; Joh 16:13 : . In the possession of the whole truth Christians are also enabled to distinguish lies and truth. [169]
[165] By this, however, it is not meant that the apostle, when he turns to his readers with , does not contrast them at all with the antichrists, but only that he does not do it in this sense, that he wishes thereby to emphasize a contrast between them. Had the apostle intended this, he would certainly not have used , for in such antitheses is only suitable when the predicates exactly correspond with one another ( e.g. they have , and ye have ); but even then usually is used (comp. Mat 5:21-22 , and many other passages), or no particle at all (comp. Joh 3:31 , etc.).
[166] As Bengel thinks that this whole section is addressed to the children, he says: Eam unctionem spiritualem habent pueruli; namque cum baptismo, quem susceperunt, conjunctum, erat donum Spiritus s., cujus significandi causa ex hoc ipso loco deinceps usu receptum esse videtur, ut oleo corpora baptizatorum ungerentur. How in modern times this passage is misused as a proof of the post-apostolic origin of the Epistle, see the Introduction, sec. 3.
[167] As quite arbitrary interpretations, we may further mention here that of Semler and that of J. J. Hess ( Flatt’s and Susskind’s Magaz. vol. xiv.); the former , on the false assumption that the Epistle is addressed especially to the presbyters also, explains by: legitima auctoritas docendi, and adds: est idem ac illud, cujus auctor spiritus s., qui per apostolos impertitur doctoribus; and the latter understands by it the instruction which the Churches of Asia Minor received about Antichrist through the Apocalypse.
[168] Neander: “That which in the Old Covenant was connected only with individuals to whom in some way the guidance of God’s people was entrusted, with individuals who thereby were singled out from the mass of the rest of the people, this under the New Covenant is connected with the people of God in general. There are therefore no longer among the people of God any such distinctions as there were in the Old Covenant between kings, prophets, priests, and people. They are one kingly priestly race, whose nobility and high destination all share; all are prophets by virtue of that common enlightenment by the Holy Spirit.”
[169] The genuinely Catholic interpretation of Estius is worthy of notice: habetis episcopos et presbyteros, quorum cura ae studio vestrae ecelesiae satis instructao sunt in iis, quae pertinent ad doctrinae christianae veritatem.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 2440
THE UNCTION OF THE HOLY ONE
1Jn 2:20. Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.
IT is a melancholy fact, that, in every age of the Church, persons have arisen from the bosom of the Church herself, not only to speak perverse things, and draw away disciples after them [Note: Act 20:30.], but even to introduce damnable heresies, and to deny the Lord that bought them [Note: 2Pe 2:1.]. Such antichrists had been foretold by our Lord himself; and, even in the apostolic age they existed in great numbers [Note: ver. 18.]. These persons, for a length of time, could not be distinguished from the truly pious: for though the more eminent Christians, who had the gift of discerning spirits, might see something materially wrong in the spirit and temper of their minds, yet, inasmuch as their defects were not generally visible, nor of so determined a character as to call for public censure, they were suffered to grow up as tares among the wheat, till, by their own wilful apostasy, they manifested their character before all. From their contagion, however, the truly upright were preserved. And that which was made instrumental to their preservation was, an unction from the Holy One, whereby they were enabled to discern all things, and consequently, by proving all things, to hold fast that which was good.
From hence we see,
I.
The distinguishing privilege of true Christians
They have an unction from the Holy One
[The Lord Jesus Christ is undoubtedly that Holy One from whom the unction proceeds. By this name he is frequently designated, both in the Old Testament [Note: Psa 16:10. Dan 9:24.] and the New [Note: Act 3:14. Rev 3:7.]: and, in order to the execution of his mediatorial office, he himself was anointed with the Holy Ghost [Note: Act 10:38.], and fitted for the discharge of all that he had undertaken [Note: Isa 61:1. with Luk 4:18.]. It was foretold that he should be so anointed [Note: Isa 11:1-3.]; and the prediction was visibly fulfilled at the time of his public consecration to his high office [Note: Mat 3:16-17.]. Of this Spirit he received without measure [Note: Joh 3:34.]: and the holy oil, poured out upon his sacred head, descends to the skirts of his garments [Note: Psa 133:2.]. But at his ascension to heaven this divine unction was committed to him in a more particular manner, in order that he might pour it out upon his people, who were to be anointed to some of the same offices which he himself sustained. This was foretold by David: and the accomplishment of it is declared by the Apostle Paul: but there is a difference between the passage as uttered by the prophet, and as cited by the Apostle; a difference worthy of particular observation. David says, Thou hast ascended on high; thou hast led captivity captive; thou hast received gifts for men [Note: Psa 68:18.]: but St. Paul, in quoting it, says, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men [Note: Eph 4:8.]. The truth is, that Jesus received this gift, on purpose that he might give it: and he does give it, according to the promise which he made to his people [Note: Joh 16:7.], and according to the promise which the Father himself made to them in Abraham two thousand years before [Note: Gal 3:13-14.].]
This is their distinctive privilege
[Sensual or natural men have not the Spirit: and it is in consequence of their not having it, that they separate themselves, precisely as those did who are spoken of in the text [Note: Jude, ver. 19.]. But every true believer has this divine unction abiding in him [Note: Joh 14:16-17.]: and it is from the very circumstance of his having received this unction, that the believer is emboldened to claim, as it were, a relation to his God [Note: 1Jn 3:24; 1Jn 4:13.]. Without this, he would not be able to perform any part of his duty aright: he could not walk acceptably to God, but by the Spirit [Note: Gal 5:16.]: he could not even pray as he ought [Note: Rom 8:26.]: he could not so much as call the Lord Jesus Christ his Lord, but by the Holy Ghost [Note: 1Co 12:3.]. To this divine unction he is indebted for the very existence of life in his soul: and the man who has it not, is even dead before God [Note: Eph 2:1.]. And hence he may affirm, without the remotest danger of mistake, that, if any man be led by the Spirit of God, he is a Son of God [Note: Rom 8:14.]; and, on the contrary, that if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his [Note: Rom 8:9.].]
To estimate aright this high privilege, we must further consider,
II.
The benefit they derive from it
When it is said, that they know all things, we must of course not so interpret the words as to include the knowledge of arts and sciences, or even a scientific knowledge of religion itself. The Apostle means only, that by this divine unction the Christian attains an acquaintance with all things that are necessary,
1.
For his preservation from error
[Human wisdom is not sufficient for this: and the more it is relied upon, the more likely it will be to deceive and ruin us. To be wise in our own conceit, and to lean to our own understanding, are marks of extreme weakness and folly; and those who habitually indulge these evils, are sure, at last, to fall: for God, who has promised to guide and instruct the humble [Note: Psa 25:9.], has declared, that he will take the wise in their own craftiness [Note: 1Co 3:9.]. That we may see what a preservative this divine unction is, let us bear in mind, that he who has it, has in himself the witness of all the most important truths of Christianity [Note: 1Jn 5:10.]; so that, when a deceiver endeavours to subvert his faith, he has in his own bosom a conviction which nothing can shake. He may not be able to answer the arguments that are brought against him, any more than he could maintain a disputation with one who should assert, as some have done, that there is no heat in fire: but he can no more be turned from his persuasion, than he could be made to believe that there is no sun in the firmament, or that he could subsist without food. An adversary might dilate upon the dignity of human nature till his voice failed him: but he could never persuade a Christian that the heart is any other than what God has declared it to bedeceitful above all things, and desperately wicked [Note: Jer 17:9.]. He might expatiate upon the sufficiency of mans righteousness to justify him before God: but he could never induce a true penitent to rely on any thing but the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith [Note: Php 3:9.]. He might assert, as confidently as he would, the ability of man to fulfil the will of God: but the man that has this divine unction knows that without Christ he can do nothing [Note: Joh 15:5.]. Thus he has, if I may so speak, a compass whereby to steer even in the dark, and can traverse the seas in safety; whilst those who have only the dictates of human wisdom for their guide, are left to run on rocks and shoals, to their eternal ruin [Note: Pro 28:5.].]
2.
For his final salvation
[This divine unction, duly improved, shall be sufficient for every thing to which the Christian is called. By it, he shall mortify the whole body of sin [Note: Rom 8:13.]. By it, he shall be able to sustain every affliction that can come upon him [Note: 2Co 12:9.]. By it, he shall be changed into the perfect image of his God [Note: 2Co 3:18.].
We must not, however, misunderstand the Apostle, as though this unction of the Holy One superseded an attention to the word of God, or the necessity of continual diligence on our part. The word of God is, after all, our only directory: and to imagine, as some do, that the light within renders the written word unnecessary, is a very dangerous error. The light within is necessary, just as the light of the sun is for the discovery of time upon the dial: but as the dial is of no use without the sun, so neither will the sun suffice without the dial. And, whatever office the Holy Spirit executes, he executes it by and through the written word. Nor let it be supposed that we can acquire divine knowledge without much studious application to the word of God: for Solomon tells us, that it is not by either prayer or study, separately, that we can attain knowledge: it must be by both combined: If we cry after knowledge, and search for it as for hid treasures, then shall we understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God [Note: Pro 2:3-5.].
It is proper I should yet further guard against an idea, that this divine unction supersedes the necessity of diffidence on our part: for though it is true, that, on the great leading and fundamental doctrines of the fall, and of the recovery by Jesus Christ, the inward witness of these truths may suffice to preserve us, there are ten thousand errors, into which we may fall, even whilst we think that we are taught by the Holy Ghost. From damning error and apostasy he will keep his people; but not from all error: for then there would be no room left for diversity of opinion in the Church of God. But we shall never see eye to eye in this life. There will still be room left for difference of sentiment, in matters of minor importance: and mutual forbearance in relation to them will be necessary, even to the end. In things essential, there should be unity; in things non-essential, liberty; and in every thing there should be charity.]
Address
1.
Those who doubt the doctrine of our text
[To speak of a divine unction, as given to us to secure us from error, and to bring us to salvation, appears, to many, to be a wild and enthusiastic conceit. They believe that the Holy Ghost was given formerly to the Church for the working of miracles; but they will not believe that he is continued to the Church, for the purpose of guiding, and comforting, and sanctifying the soul. But to any one who doubts his need of the Holy Spirit, I would say, What did our blessed Lord mean, when, in counselling the Laodicean Church, he said, Anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see [Note: Rev 3:18.]? I do not conceive it possible to explain away that passage; or for any one, who believes the Scripture, to doubt but that there is an unction of the Holy One, which we all need, in order to the attainment of a spiritual discernment. It is the office of the Holy Spirit to glorify Christ, by taking of the things that are Christs, and shewing them unto us [Note: Joh 16:14.]. Let not prejudice, then, keep any from seeking this inestimable benefit; but let all entreat of God to send down upon them a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ [Note: Eph 1:17-18.]; and so to guide them into all truth [Note: Joh 14:26; Joh 16:13.], that they may be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation.]
2.
To those who profess to be living in the experience of it
[Have any of you been thus anointed, and thus preserved? Then give God the glory of it; and say with the Apostle, He who hath established us in Christ, and hath anointed us, (you observe the union of the two, as in the text,) is God [Note: 2Co 1:21. with 1Jn 2:27.]. But remember, that the world can only judge of your professions by your practice. You profess, that by the unction of the Holy One you know all things: let it be seen, then, that by the unction of the Holy One you do all things. It is by your fruits that you must be judged, both by God and man. See to it, then, that you guard against that conceit which so prevails in heretics and apostates. To your latest hour you must retain a childlike spirit, and particularly in the simplicity and docility of your minds. You must guard, too, against every corrupt bias. If your eye be single, your whole body will be full of light: but if your eye be evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. In particular, be careful not to make the truths of God an occasion of needless contention. For the fundamentals of religion you must indeed contend, and that earnestly, if need be; but even in reference to them, it would be better to recommend to your adversaries, and to cultivate for yourselves, the study of the Holy Scriptures with prayer. In this way, you will grow both in knowledge and in grace; and your light will shine brighter and brighter unto the perfect day.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
20 But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.
Ver. 20. But ye have an unction ] That oil of gladness, the Holy Ghost. In derision thereof, Domitian, the tyrant, cast St John into a caldron of boiling oil, but he by a miracle came forth unhurt.
Ye know all things ] Not all things knowable, but all things needful to be known.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
20, 21 .] The Apostle puts them in mind, in an apologetic form, of the truth which they as Christians possessed, and the very possession of which, not the contrary, was his reason for thus writing to them. This reminiscence carries at the same time with it the force of an exhortation, as so many of the ideal statements on Christian perfection in our Epistle. What they have in the ideal depth of their Christian life, that they ought to have in living and working reality. And (hardly as Lcke, logically adversative to what preceded: so De Wette ( aber ), and many others. Huther ascribes this interpretation virtually to Dsterdieck, but wrongly: for the latter keeps in its simple copulative meaning, and only asserts that what adversative meaning there is consists in the sense , not in the outward expression. “John,” he says, “denotes only the passage to a new particular, without distinctly marking its adversative relation to the last”) ye (expressed, as emphatic: see above) have an anointing ( is properly the oil or ointment with which the anointing takes place, not the act itself of anointing. For this we have in English no word adequate to the necessity of the passage: “unguent” is the nearest approach, but is still inadequate. It is certain that in later Greek there arose a considerable confusion between verbal nouns in – and their cognates in – . Thus in Exo 29 , the , 1Jn 2:7 , becomes the , in 1Jn 2:21 . On the meaning, see below) from the Holy One (viz. from Christ, the of our 1Jn 2:1 , the of ch. 1Jn 3:3 , the of Act 3:14 , and of Joh 6:69 ; cf. also Rev 3:18 , where the Laodicean church is counselled to buy of Christ , . This is agreed to by almost all Commentators: even Socinus says that the Apostle “de Deo simul et Christo loqui, non secus ac si ambo una tantum persona essent:” and Schlichting concedes that the words may be understood of Christ), and know all things (the full and perfect knowledge of Christian truth is the ideal completion of those who have this anointing. This of course must not be understood as actually predicated of these readers: but the expression explains itself as referring to all things needful for right action in the matter under consideration: q. d. . So most Commentators. “Quod autem omnia dicit novisse, non universaliter capi, sed ad prsentis loci circumstantiam restringi debet,” Calv. See note on Joh 16:13 ; cf. also 1Co 1:5 ; 1Co 8:1 ; Eph 1:18 ; Col 2:2 . Some understand, all things necessary to Christian life and godliness: so c., Wolf, Bengel, Neander: “qu ut homines a Spiritu Sancto uncti doctique tum ad salutem, tum ad cavendos illos seductorum et antichristorum errores scire debetis,” Wolf. The alternative reading would mean “ ye all know it :” a sense which hardly seems to be applicable.
But now the question recurs, What is this , and what leads the Apostle to use this peculiar expression here? The reply to the latter question is probably, as Bengel, “Alludit appellatio chrismatis ad antichristi nomen, ex opposito.” The Apostle sets his readers, as , anointed of God, over against the . Then as to the nature of the , we can hardly fail to be right in interpreting it of the Holy Ghost . For “Christ received the Holy Ghost without measure ( Joh 3:34 ): on Him the Holy Ghost abode (ib. Joh 1:33 ): God ( Act 10:38 ). Christ baptizeth with the Holy Ghost ( Joh 1:33 ): He sends the Holy Ghost, who takes of His and shews it to believers (Joh 15:26 ; Joh 16:14 , Act 2:33 ). And seeing that the Son hath all which the Father hath, the Father is said to send forth the Spirit of His Son into the hearts of His children (Gal 4:6 ; cf. Eph 3:16 , Phi 1:19 , 2Co 3:17 ff.), and this, at the prayer, in the name, through the mediation, of the Son (Joh 14:16 ; Joh 16:7 f.): the Father anoints believers by giving them His Spirit (2Co 1:21 f.), as He has anointed the Son with the Holy Ghost. And hence the Spirit, which we have received, is the token that we are in the Father (ch. 1Jn 3:24 ), and in the Son ( 1Jn 2:27 ), that we are children of God (Rom 8:14 ff., Gal 4:6 ). The Holy Ghost teaches the faithful the truth and keeps them in it: that truth, in the knowledge of which they have eternal life, having thereby the Father and the Son.” Dsterdieck, p. 354 f. This anointing, by virtue of which they are Christ’s and the Father’s, and without which a man is none of Christ’s (Rom 8:14 ; Rom 8:9 ), in respect of which they are , the attack in its very root, and would rob them of, thereby severing them from the Son and from the Father: from light and truth and life. And this very is the means and weapon whereby they must be detected and resisted).
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Jn 2:20 . An expression of confidence in his readers: they will not be led astray; they have received “a chrism,” the enlightening grace of the Holy Spirit, “which He poured forth upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour” (Tit 3:6 ). Baptism was called in later days (Greg. Naz. Orat. xl. 4) because of the rite of baptismal anointing ( cf. Tert. De Bapt. 7: “Exinde egressi de lavacro perungimur benedicta unctione de pristina disciplina, qua ungi oleo de cornu in sacerdotium solebant”; Aug.: “Unctio spiritalis ipse Spiritus sanctus est, cujus sacramentum est in unctione visibili”)’, but there is no reference here to this rite, which was of a later date and was derived from our passage. is suggested by . “They are , you are .” Cf. Psalms 105 :(104: LXX) 15: . , not the Holy Spirit. St. John has in Epp. and Rev., but never . Either (1) Christ ( cf. Rev 3:7 ) or (2) God the Father ( cf. Act 10:38 ; Heb 1:9 ). The latter is preferable. The Spirit (Joh 15:26 ) from ( ) the Father through ( ) Christ ( cf. Tit 3:6 ).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Acts
THE FOURFOLD SYMBOLS OF THE SPIRIT
Act 2:2 – Act 2:3
Wind, fire, water, oil,-these four are constant Scriptural symbols for the Spirit of God. We have them all in these fragments of verses which I have taken for my text now, and which I have isolated from their context for the purpose of bringing out simply these symbolical references. I think that perhaps we may get some force and freshness to the thoughts proper to this day [Footnote: Whit Sunday.] by looking at these rather than by treating the subject in some more abstract form. We have then the Breath of the Spirit, the Fire of the Spirit, the Water of the Spirit, and the Anointing Oil of the Spirit. And the consideration of these four will bring out a great many of the principal Scriptural ideas about the gift of the Spirit of God which belongs to all Christian souls.
I. First, ‘a rushing mighty wind.’
We are carried hack to that grand vision of the prophet who saw the bones lying, very many and very dry, sapless and disintegrated, a heap dead and ready to rot. The question comes to him: ‘Son of man! Can these bones live?’ The only possible answer, if he consult experience, is, ‘O Lord God! Thou knowest.’ Then follows the great invocation: ‘Come from the four winds, O Breath! and breathe upon these slain that they may live.’ And the Breath comes and ‘they stand up, an exceeding great army.’ ‘It is the Spirit that quickeneth.’ The Scripture treats us all as dead, being separated from God, unless we are united to Him by faith in Jesus Christ. According to the saying of the Evangelist, ‘They which believe on Him receive’ the Spirit, and thereby receive the life which He gives, or, as our Lord Himself speaks, are ‘born of the Spirit.’ The highest and most characteristic office of the Spirit of God is to enkindle this new life, and hence His noblest name, among the many by which He is called, is the Spirit of life.
Again, remember, ‘that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.’ If there be life given it must be kindred with the life which is its source. Reflect upon those profound words of our Lord: ‘The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit.’ They describe first the operation of the life-giving Spirit, but they describe also the characteristics of the resulting life.
‘The wind bloweth where it listeth.’ That spiritual life, both in the divine source and in the human recipient, is its own law. Of course the wind has its laws, as every physical agent has; but these are so complicated and undiscovered that it has always been the very symbol of freedom, and poets have spoken of these ‘chartered libertines,’ the winds, and ‘free as the air’ has become a proverb. So that Divine Spirit is limited by no human conditions or laws, but dispenses His gifts in superb disregard of conventionalities and externalisms. Just as the lower gift of what we call ‘genius’ is above all limits of culture or education or position, and falls on a wool-stapler in Stratford-on-Avon, or on a ploughman in Ayrshire, so, in a similar manner, the altogether different gift of the divine, life-giving Spirit follows no lines that Churches or institutions draw. It falls upon an Augustinian monk in a convent, and he shakes Europe. It falls upon a tinker in Bedford gaol, and he writes Pilgrim’s Progress . It falls upon a cobbler in Kettering, and he founds modern Christian missions. It blows ‘where it listeth,’ sovereignly indifferent to the expectations and limitations and the externalisms, even of organised Christianity, and touching this man and that man, not arbitrarily but according to ‘the good pleasure’ that is a law to itself, because it is perfect in wisdom and in goodness.
And as thus the life-giving Spirit imparts Himself according to higher laws than we can grasp, so in like manner the life that is derived from it is a life which is its own law. The Christian conscience, touched by the Spirit of God, owes allegiance to no regulations or external commandments laid down by man. The Christian conscience, enlightened by the Spirit of God, at its peril will take its beliefs from any other than from that Divine Spirit. All authority over conduct, all authority over belief is burnt up and disappears in the presence of the grand democracy of the true Christian principle: ‘Ye are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ’; and every one of you possesses the Spirit which teaches, the Spirit which inspires, the Spirit which enlightens, the Spirit which is the guide to all truth. So ‘the wind bloweth where it listeth,’ and the voice of that Divine Quickener is,
‘Myself shall to My darling be
Both law and impulse.’
In this symbol there lies not only the thought of a life derived, kindred with the life bestowed, and free like the life which is given, but there lies also the idea of power. The wind which filled the house was not only mighty but ‘borne onward’-fitting type of the strong impulse by which in olden times ‘holy men spake as they were “borne onward”‘ the word is the same ‘by the Holy Ghost.’ There are diversities of operations, but it is the same breath of God, which sometimes blows in the softest pianissimo that scarcely rustles the summer woods in the leafy month of June, and sometimes storms in wild tempest that dashes the seas against the rocks. So this mighty lif-giving Agent moves in gentleness and yet in power, and sometimes swells and rises almost to tempest, but is ever the impelling force of all that is strong and true and fair in Christian hearts and lives.
The history of the world, since that day of Pentecost, has been a commentary upon the words of my text. With viewless, impalpable energy, the mighty breath of God swept across the ancient world and ‘laid the lofty city’ of paganism ‘low; even to the ground, and brought it even to the dust.’ A breath passed over the whole civilised world, like the breath of the west wind upon the glaciers in the spring, melting the thick-ribbed ice, and wooing forth the flowers, and the world was made over again. In our own hearts and lives this is the one Power that will make us strong and good. The question is all-important for each of us, ‘Have I this life, and does it move me, as the ships are borne along by the wind?’ ‘As many as are impelled by the Spirit of God, they’- they -’are the sons of God.’ Is that the breath that swells all the sails of your lives, and drives you upon your course? If it be, you are Christians; if it be not, you are not.
II. And now a word as to the second of these symbols-’Cloven tongues as of fire’-the fire of the Spirit.
You will remember, too, how our Lord Himself employs the same metaphor when He speaks about His coming to bring fire on the earth, and His longing to see it kindled into a beneficent blaze. In this connection the fire is a symbol of a quick, triumphant energy, which will transform us into its own likeness. There are two sides to that emblem: one destructive, one creative; one wrathful, one loving. There are the fire of love, and the fire of anger. There is the fire of the sunshine which is the condition of life, as well as the fire of the lightning which burns and consumes. The emblem of fire is selected to express the work of the Spirit of God, by reason of its leaping, triumphant, transforming energy. See, for instance, how, when you kindle a pile of dead green-wood, the tongues of fire spring from point to point until they have conquered the whole mass, and turned it all into a ruddy likeness of the parent flame. And so here, this fire of God, if it fall upon you, will burn up all your coldness, and will make you glow with enthusiasm, working your intellectual convictions in fire not in frost, making your creed a living power in your lives, and kindling you into a flame of earnest consecration.
The same idea is expressed by the common phrases of every language. We speak of the fervour of love, the warmth of affection, the blaze of enthusiasm, the fire of emotion, the coldness of indifference. Christians are to be set on fire of God. If the Spirit dwell in us, He will make us fiery like Himself, even as fire turns the wettest green-wood into fire. We have more than enough of cold Christians who are afraid of nothing so much as of being betrayed into warm emotion.
I believe, dear brethren, and I am bound to express the belief, that one of the chief wants of the Christian Church of this generation, the Christian Church of this city, the Christian Church of this chapel, is more of the fire of God! We are all icebergs compared with what we ought to be. Look at yourselves; never mind about your brethren. Let each of us look at his own heart, and say whether there is any trace in his Christianity of the power of that Spirit who is fire. Is our religion flame or ice? Where among us are to be found lives blazing with enthusiastic devotion and earnest love? Do not such words sound like mockery when applied to us? Have we not to listen to that solemn old warning that never loses its power, and, alas! seems never to lose its appropriateness: ‘Because thou art neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth.’ We ought to be like the burning beings before God’s throne, the seraphim, the spirits that blaze and serve. We ought to be like God Himself, all aflame with love. Let us seek penitently for that Spirit of fire who will dwell in us all if we will.
The metaphor of fire suggests also-purifying. ‘The Spirit of burning’ will burn the filth out of us. That is the only way by which a man can ever be made clean. You may wash and wash and wash with the cold water of moral reformation, you will never get the dirt out with it. No washing and no rubbing will ever cleanse sin. The way to purge a soul is to do with it as they do with foul clay-thrust it into the fire and that will burn all the blackness out of it. Get the love of God into your hearts, and the fire of His Divine Spirit into your spirits to melt you down, as it were, and then the scum and the dross will come to the top, and you can skim them off. Two powers conquer my sin: the one is the blood of Jesus Christ, which washes me from all the guilt of the past; the other is the fiery influence of that Divine Spirit which makes me pure and clean for all the time to come. Pray to be kindled with the fire of God.
III. Then once more, take that other metaphor, ‘I will pour out of My Spirit.’
There are other passages where, in like manner, the Spirit is compared to a flowing stream, such as, for instance, when our Lord said, ‘He that believeth on Me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water,’ and when John saw a ‘river of water of life proceeding from the throne.’ The expressions, too, of ‘pouring out’ and ‘shedding forth’ the Spirit, point in the same direction, and are drawn from more than one passage of Old Testament prophecy. What, then, is the significance of comparing that Divine Spirit with a river of water? First, cleansing, of which I need not say any more, because I have dealt with It in the previous part of my sermon. Then, further, refreshing, and satisfying. Ah! dear brethren, there is only one thing that will slake the immortal thirst in your souls. The world will never do it; love or ambition gratified and wealth possessed, will never do it. You will be as thirsty after you have drunk of these streams as ever you were before. There is one spring ‘of which if a man drink, he shall never thirst’ with unsatisfied, painful longings, but shall never cease to thirst with the longing which is blessedness, because it is fruition. Our thirst can be slaked by the deep draught of ‘the river of the Water of Life, which proceeds from the Throne of God and the Lamb.’ The Spirit of God, drunk in by my spirit, will still and satisfy my whole nature, and with it I shall be glad. Drink of this. ‘Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters!’
The Spirit is not only refreshing and satisfying, but also productive and fertilising. In Eastern lands a rill of water is all that is needed to make the wilderness rejoice. Turn that stream on to the barrenness of your hearts, and fair flowers will grow that would never grow without it. The one means of lofty and fruitful Christian living is a deep, inward possession of the Spirit of God. The one way to fertilise barren souls is to let that stream flood them all over, and then the flush of green will soon come, and that which is else a desert will ‘rejoice and blossom as the rose.’
So this water will cleanse, it will satisfy and refresh, it will be productive and will fertilise, and ‘everything shall live whithersoever that river cometh.’
IV. Then, lastly, we have the oil of the Spirit.
You are anointed to be prophets that you may make known Him who has loved and saved you, and may go about the world evidently inspired to show forth His praise, and make His name glorious. That anointing calls and fits you to be priests, mediators between God and man, bringing God to men, and by pleading and persuasion, and the presentation of the truth, drawing men to God. That unction calls and fits you to be kings, exercising authority over the little monarchy of your own natures, and over the men round you, who will bow in submission whenever they come in contact with a man all evidently aflame with the love of Jesus Christ, and filled with His Spirit. The world is hard and rude; the world is blind and stupid; the world often fails to know its best friends and its truest benefactors; but there is no crust of stupidity so crass and dense but that through it there will pass the penetrating shafts of light that ray from the face of a man who walks in fellowship with Jesus. The whole nation of old was honoured with these sacred names. They were a kingdom of priests; and the divine Voice said of the nation, ‘Touch not Mine anointed, and do My prophets no harm!’ How much more are all Christian men, by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, made prophets, priests, and kings to God! Alas for the difference between what they ought to be and what they are!
And then, do not forget also that when the Scriptures speak of Christian men as being anointed, it really speaks of them as being Messiahs. ‘Christ’ means anointed , does it not? ‘Messiah’ means anointed . And when we read in such a passage as that of my text, ‘Ye have an unction from the Holy One,’ we cannot but feel that the words point in the same direction as the great words of our Master Himself, ‘As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.’ By authority derived, no doubt, and in a subordinate and secondary sense, of course, we are Messiahs, anointed with that Spirit which was given to Him, not by measure, and which has passed from Him to us. ‘If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.’
So, dear brethren, all these things being certainly so, what are we to say about the present state of Christendom? What are we to say about the present state of English Christianity, Church and Dissent alike? Is Pentecost a vanished glory, then? Has that ‘rushing mighty wind’ blown itself out, and a dead calm followed? Has that leaping fire died down into grey ashes? Has the great river that burst out then, like the stream from the foot of the glaciers of Mont Blanc, full-grown in its birth, been all swallowed up in the sand, like some of those rivers in the East? Has the oil dried in the cruse? People tell us that Christianity is on its death-bed; and the aspect of a great many professing Christians seems to confirm the statement. But let us thankfully recognise that ‘we are not straitened in God, but in ourselves.’ To how many of us the question might be put: ‘Did you receive the Holy Ghost when you believed?’ And how many of us by our lives answer: ‘We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.’ Let us go where we can receive Him; and remember the blessed words: ‘If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him’!
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
But = And.
unction. Greek. chrisma. Only here and 1Jn 2:27. For the verb chrio see 2Co 1:21.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
20, 21.] The Apostle puts them in mind, in an apologetic form, of the truth which they as Christians possessed, and the very possession of which, not the contrary, was his reason for thus writing to them. This reminiscence carries at the same time with it the force of an exhortation, as so many of the ideal statements on Christian perfection in our Epistle. What they have in the ideal depth of their Christian life, that they ought to have in living and working reality. And (hardly as Lcke, logically adversative to what preceded: so De Wette (aber), and many others. Huther ascribes this interpretation virtually to Dsterdieck, but wrongly: for the latter keeps in its simple copulative meaning, and only asserts that what adversative meaning there is consists in the sense, not in the outward expression. John, he says, denotes only the passage to a new particular, without distinctly marking its adversative relation to the last) ye (expressed, as emphatic: see above) have an anointing ( is properly the oil or ointment with which the anointing takes place, not the act itself of anointing. For this we have in English no word adequate to the necessity of the passage: unguent is the nearest approach, but is still inadequate. It is certain that in later Greek there arose a considerable confusion between verbal nouns in – and their cognates in -. Thus in Exodus 29, the , 1Jn 2:7, becomes the , in 1Jn 2:21. On the meaning, see below) from the Holy One (viz. from Christ, the of our 1Jn 2:1, the of ch. 1Jn 3:3, the of Act 3:14, and of Joh 6:69; cf. also Rev 3:18, where the Laodicean church is counselled to buy of Christ , . This is agreed to by almost all Commentators: even Socinus says that the Apostle de Deo simul et Christo loqui, non secus ac si ambo una tantum persona essent: and Schlichting concedes that the words may be understood of Christ), and know all things (the full and perfect knowledge of Christian truth is the ideal completion of those who have this anointing. This of course must not be understood as actually predicated of these readers: but the expression explains itself as referring to all things needful for right action in the matter under consideration: q. d. . So most Commentators. Quod autem omnia dicit novisse, non universaliter capi, sed ad prsentis loci circumstantiam restringi debet, Calv. See note on Joh 16:13; cf. also 1Co 1:5; 1Co 8:1; Eph 1:18; Col 2:2. Some understand, all things necessary to Christian life and godliness: so c., Wolf, Bengel, Neander: qu ut homines a Spiritu Sancto uncti doctique tum ad salutem, tum ad cavendos illos seductorum et antichristorum errores scire debetis, Wolf. The alternative reading would mean ye all know it: a sense which hardly seems to be applicable.
But now the question recurs, What is this , and what leads the Apostle to use this peculiar expression here? The reply to the latter question is probably, as Bengel, Alludit appellatio chrismatis ad antichristi nomen, ex opposito. The Apostle sets his readers, as , anointed of God, over against the . Then as to the nature of the , we can hardly fail to be right in interpreting it of the Holy Ghost. For Christ received the Holy Ghost without measure (Joh 3:34): on Him the Holy Ghost abode (ib. Joh 1:33): God (Act 10:38). Christ baptizeth with the Holy Ghost (Joh 1:33): He sends the Holy Ghost, who takes of His and shews it to believers (Joh 15:26; Joh 16:14, Act 2:33). And seeing that the Son hath all which the Father hath, the Father is said to send forth the Spirit of His Son into the hearts of His children (Gal 4:6; cf. Eph 3:16, Php 1:19, 2Co 3:17 ff.), and this, at the prayer, in the name, through the mediation, of the Son (Joh 14:16; Joh 16:7 f.): the Father anoints believers by giving them His Spirit (2Co 1:21 f.), as He has anointed the Son with the Holy Ghost. And hence the Spirit, which we have received, is the token that we are in the Father (ch. 1Jn 3:24), and in the Son (1Jn 2:27), that we are children of God (Rom 8:14 ff., Gal 4:6). The Holy Ghost teaches the faithful the truth and keeps them in it: that truth, in the knowledge of which they have eternal life, having thereby the Father and the Son. Dsterdieck, p. 354 f. This anointing, by virtue of which they are Christs and the Fathers, and without which a man is none of Christs (Rom 8:14; Rom 8:9), in respect of which they are , the attack in its very root, and would rob them of, thereby severing them from the Son and from the Father: from light and truth and life. And this very is the means and weapon whereby they must be detected and resisted).
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Jn 2:20. , and ye have an unction from the Holy One) An abbreviated expression (as Joh 1:18; Joh 14:10, notes), with this meaning: you have an anointing (a chrism) from Christ; you have the Holy Spirit from the Holy One. But the title of anointing (chrism) has an allusion to the name of antichrist, in an opposite sense: 1Jn 2:18; , , He who hath anointed us is God, 2Co 1:21; , Christ, the Anointed, is the Son of God, Act 4:26-27; , the anointing, is the Holy Spirit; Heb 1:9. , the little children, have this spiritual anointing; for together with baptism, which they received, was joined the gift of the Holy Spirit; and for the sake of signifying this, it appears to have been a subsequently received practice, from this very passage, for the bodies of the baptized to be anointed with oil. See Suicers Thesaurus on the word . He speaks respecting the Holy Spirit more plainly, ch. 1Jn 3:24, 1Jn 4:13, 1Jn 5:6. For this is often the custom of John, to touch upon any subject immediately, intending to handle it more plainly and fully after some interval. Thus, is born, 1Jn 2:29, comp. with ch. 1Jn 3:9; thus, liberty or confidence, ch. 1Jn 3:21, comp. with ch. 1Jn 5:14.- , from the Holy One) the Righteous, 1Jn 2:1; 1Jn 2:29; the Son of God, Joh 10:36. See respecting the anointing of the most Holy, Dan 9:24. Formerly there was a sacred ointment of a material nature, Exo 30:25; now it is of a spiritual kind.-) and from thence.-) all things, which it is most needful for you to know. Seducers were to be repelled with this answer: just as a prudent man answers an importunate vender, I want nothing.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
ye have: 1Jo 2:27, 1Jo 4:13, Psa 23:5, Psa 45:7, Psa 92:10, Isa 61:1, Luk 4:18, Act 10:38, 2Co 1:21, 2Co 1:22, Heb 1:9
the Holy: Psa 16:10, Psa 71:22, Isa 43:3, Mar 1:24, Luk 4:34, Act 3:14, Rev 3:7, Rev 4:8
and ye: Pro 28:5, Joh 10:4, Joh 10:5, Joh 14:26, Joh 16:13, 1Co 2:15, Heb 8:11
Reciprocal: Exo 28:41 – anoint them Exo 30:26 – General Exo 37:29 – he made Exo 40:9 – the anointing oil Exo 40:13 – anoint him Lev 2:1 – pour oil Lev 7:35 – portion Lev 14:15 – General Num 18:8 – by reason Jdg 9:9 – wherewith Psa 104:15 – oil to make his Psa 119:33 – I shall keep Pro 9:9 – General Isa 10:27 – because Isa 30:21 – thine ears Isa 32:3 – General Isa 35:8 – the wayfaring Isa 54:13 – all Jer 31:34 – for they Eze 16:9 – anointed Mat 13:21 – root Mat 25:4 – oil Act 2:27 – thine Rom 5:18 – all men 1Co 2:10 – by 1Co 2:12 – that 1Co 2:14 – neither Gal 5:18 – if 1Th 4:9 – ye need Rev 3:18 – anoint
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE ANOINTING
Ye have an unction from the Holy One. But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him.
1Jn 2:20; 1Jn 2:27
The anointing is a sacred symbol. It speaks at once to us of a Divine operation. We know from other parts of Scripture that the unction from the Holy One is an appointed emblem of the Holy Spirit and His work.
I. The anointing is necessary:
(a) To enlighten us. This oil gives light. What wondrous light it gave to St. Peter on the day of Pentecost.
(b) To emancipate us. Men want not only to know what to do, they want power to do it. They want not only a teacher, but a liberator.
(c) To establish us. It is, in fact, specially in this connection that the Apostle refers to it. False teachers and false doctrines had crept into the Church in his day, even as they have in our own, with the result that the most earnest Christians were most in danger of being led astray by them. But the Apostle had an unfailing resource. He appeals at once to the anointing as enough to safeguard his converts.
(d) To endear Christians to each other. It used to be said in the early days, See how these Christians love one another. I fear it can hardly be said now. Alas, for our unhappy divisions.
(e) To encourage us. How much encouragement we want in this world of sadness and gloom, when sorrow and care seem ready to overwhelm us; when we are in heaviness through manifold temptations;
When gathering clouds around we view,
And days are dark and friends are few;
when we say, with Jacob, All these things are against me. At such times let us remember that comfort is provided for us. The sweet name of the Holy Ghost is Comforter.
II. Upon what conditions will the anointing be ours?
(a) We must be united to the Anointed One. It is from the head of our great High Priest that the holy oil flows down, even to the very skirts of His garments. It is only through union with Christ that we can receive the unction which descends from Christ. If we have not experienced uniting grace, it is in vain that we look for anointing grace. We must be alive before we can be strong. The first and indispensable condition, before we are baptized of the Spirit, is that we be begotten of the Spirit unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1Pe 1:3).
(b) We must be surrendered and cleansed. Selfishness, slothfulness, waywardness, unbeliefthese are the hindrances which clog the channel between our souls and Christ. Are you sincerely willing that Christ should banish them? When you are really willing, He can burn up these thorns and briers in one day (Isa 10:17).
Rev. E. W. Moore.
Illustration
Men do not readily acknowledge that all sinning is slavery. The subtler forms of evil so disguise themselves that men shut their eyes and refuse to acknowledge that they are chains at all. What shall we say of the bondage of heart sin; of the yoke of pride, hard, unbending, galling; of the yoke of ill-temper, which turns a happy home into a prison-house; of the yoke of some secret, besetting sin, eating like a canker into the soul? The trouble is, a Christian man once said to a friend who was speaking to him of these things, I love some sins. Ah, yes, that is the trouble. Nor can it ever be overcome until at length we learn that Christ can save us from the love as well as from the practice of the sins we deplore.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
1Jn 2:20. Unction is used figuratively from the ancient custom of pouring oil on the heads of those who were to act in the service of the Lord. In its spiritual sense it refers to the enlightening that the Lord bestowed on the apostles, enabling them to impart the necessary information to the members of the body of Christ. Ye know all things means they know all that pertains to life and godliness (2Pe 1:3).
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Jn 2:20. And ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. There is no but here: the verse introduces a new consolation; and that is the fact of the impartation of the Holy Ghost to all the members of the spiritual fellowship, as a Spirit of consecration generally, and particularly as a teaching guide into all truth. Ye have, as the result of having received (1Jn 2:27), your part of the common Pentecostal gift. This was received from the Holy One: that is, Christ, who is the life, or the Son as the source of our sonship, the Righteous as the source of our righteousness, and the Holy One as the source of our sanctification. The term unction, or chrisma, like that of seed or sperma, refers to the Holy Ghost, whose name has not yet been mentioned. It goes back to the Old Testament, which St. John never formally quotes, though he habitually incorporates it: there the anointing oil or the oil of anointing (Exo 29:7; Exo 29:21) is the symbol of the Holy Ghost, first as setting apart for God whatever was touched by it, secondly as specifically consecrating the priests and kings and prophets of the old economy. The antitype was poured out on Christ without measure that it might flow upon all His members, consecrating them to God, and making them representatives of His three official relations. In its first meaning, which certainly is included here, it signifies that those who receive the chrism belong to Christ as opposed to all antichrists: this indeed suggesting the word. In its second meaning it signifies that the members of Christs mystical body share His unction as the Prophet: they have His Spirit teaching them all things, that is, all the truth as truth is in Jesus. The chrisma becomes as it were a charisma: the gift of spiritual knowledge in all that pertains to the doctrine presently made prominent. St. John, as his manner is, lays down the high and sacred privilege in all its perfectness: the qualifications are inserted afterwards, and indeed are suggested in every sentence. 1Jn 2:21. The promise of the Spirit of the truth is evidently in St. Johns thoughts, and these words are in indirect allusion to that promise as fulfilled in the community. The Saviour laid stress on the truth as one: the truth embodied in His own person. That central truth all who receive the anointing must know, and the apostle, with the same feeling that dictated the previous words, I have written to you, children, because ye know the Father, acknowledges their heavenly instruction even while he is instructing them himself.
I write not unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it. His purpose here is to show them that the truth is not only a revelation of the Christ, but a revelation of antichrist also. And that no lie is of the truth: he takes it for granted that they know; that is, in the form of taking it for granted, he urgently exhorts them to remember that there can be no peace between the truth and any form of the lie whatever. The same absolute contrast and diametrical opposition that he establishes between regeneration and sin, the Fathers love and love of the world, light and darkness, he establishes between truth and error. We often trace theological error to a perversion of lesser truth; and in many lesser matters rightly. But the truth as it is explained in the next verse cannot shade off into less true, and reach the false that way. Hence the abrupt question that follows.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
As if our apostle had said, “Although there are many antichrists and seducers abroad in the world, yet the most holy God hath anointed you with his Holy Spirit, which will preserve you from pernicious error, and lead you into all necessary truth, if you obey and follow him”
Observe here, 1. A privilege enjoyed: Ye have an unction from the Holy One. By which understand the Holy Spirit in its sanctifying gifts and graces, which consecrate believers as kings and priests unto God.
Observe, 2. The advantage of that privilege declared, Ye know all things; not absolutely, but with restriction and limitation: All things: that is, all divine things, all divine things revealed, and all things revealed that are necessary to salvation: All things needful to be known, and as far as needful for you to know: all things relating to God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, ourselves, sin, Satan, the law, the gospel, grace, and glory; ye know all these things by virtue of your unction.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Christians Are Anointed
John wrote to those who knew the truth, which under the new law of Christ would include all who are in the kingdom ( Jer 31:31-34 ). They would recognize anything that was not of the gospel and should know it was a lie. The particular lie John dealt with here was a denial of Jesus as the Christ. Those who would question the truth of God coming in the flesh actually deny Jesus as the Christ, God’s Son. In so doing, they deny the Father who testified to his Sonship and was one with Him in purpose ( Mat 17:5 ; Joh 5:23 ; Joh 14:8-11 ). The anti- Christs of whom John wrote taught this lie ( 1Jn 2:21-22 ).
Anyone who refuses to confess Christ as God’s Son has burned his bridge to the Father. By denying God’s Son, he has destroyed his relationship with both the Son and his Father ( 1Jn 2:23 ; Joh 14:6 ; Mat 10:32-33 ).
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
1Jn 2:20. But ye have an unction , a chrism, (perhaps so termed in opposition to the name of antichrist,) an inward teaching from the Holy Ghost, whereby ye know all things Necessary for your preservation from these seducers, and for your eternal salvation. There seems to be no proof that the apostle here, as some suppose, was addressing those of the primitive Christians only who were endowed with extraordinary gifts, especially the gift of discerning spirits. It rather appears, that through the whole epistle he is addressing true Christians in general, that is, divinely illuminated, justified, and regenerated persons, all of whom are represented in this very epistle as dwelling in God, and God in them, and as knowing that he dwelt in them by the Spirit which he had given them, 1Jn 3:24; 1Jn 4:16; which is perfectly agreeable to the doctrine of the other apostles, particularly of St. Paul, who represents believers in general as the temple of God, having the Spirit of God dwelling in them, 1Co 3:16; 1Co 6:19; 2Co 6:16; Eph 2:22 : and who declares positively, that if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his, Rom 8:9; and that only they who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God, Rom 8:14. Now, this Spirit, which all true believers possess, at least in his ordinary graces, as a Spirit of light and life, of love, peace, and joy, of holiness and happiness, is a Spirit of truth as well of grace, and leads those on whom he is conferred into at least all essential truth; all the grand leading doctrines of the gospel, which would sufficiently secure those to whom the apostle wrote against the seducing teachers, the antichrists here referred to.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Verse 20
An unction; an anointing, considered as the ceremony or induction to office. The idea is, that they had been admitted to the station and privileges of the children of God by the Holy One himself, and would not prove apostate, like those mentioned in the 1 John 2:19.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
2:20 {21} But ye have an {p} unction from the {q} Holy One, and ye know all things.
(21) Thirdly, he comforts them, to make them stand fast, as they are anointed by the Holy Spirit with the true knowledge of salvation.
(p) The grace of the Holy Spirit, and this is a borrowed type of speech taken from the anointings used in the law.
(q) From Christ who is peculiarly called Holy.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Signs of the believer 2:20-23
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
In contrast to the heterodox secessionists (1Jn 2:19), the faithful believers within the community were "keeping the faith." The "anointing" referred to is evidently the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus gives to each believer at conversion (Rom 8:9; 1Co 12:13; cf. Luk 4:18; Joh 6:69; Joh 14:17; Joh 14:26; Joh 15:26; Joh 16:13; Act 4:27; Act 10:38; 2Co 1:21-22). John said it abode in his readers to teach them and that it was truthful (1Jn 2:27).
"Anointing designates something for sacred use." [Note: Ryrie, "The First . . .," p. 1470.]
John referred to the Holy Spirit as the anointing, ascribing a teaching role, which is a personal function, to Him. This seems preferable to the idea that the Word of God is the anointing. [Note: This is a view proposed by Dodd, p. 63, but refuted by Hodges, "1 John," p. 892, and Simon Kistemaker, Exposition of the Epistle of James and the Epistles of John, p. 279, footnote 55. Marshall, p. 155, proposed a similar view, namely, that the Word applied by the Spirit constitutes the anointing, which Smalley, pp. 106-7, followed. Yarbrough, p. 149, viewed the anointing as the effect of the apostolic message the readers had received (i.e., the truth).] John previously spoke of Jesus Christ as the life (1Jn 1:2). The presence of the Holy Spirit in every believer enables him or her to perceive the truth of the gospel and to distinguish it from error (Joh 14:26; Joh 16:13). Of course, some Christians have more perception than others due to God-given ability, Satanic blindness, the influence of human teachers, sin in the life, etc.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 12
KNOWING ALL THINGS
1Jn 2:20
THERE is little of the form of logical argument to which Western readers are habituated in the writings of St. John, steeped as his mind was in Hebraic influences. The inferential “therefore” is not to be found in this Epistle. Yet the diligent reader or expositor finds it more difficult to detach any single sentence, without loss to the general meaning, than in any other writing of the New Testament. The sentence may look almost as if its letters were graven brief and large upon a block of marble, and stood out in oracular isolation-but upon reverent study it will be found that the seemingly lapidary inscription is one of a series with each of which it is indissolubly connected-sometimes limited, sometimes enlarged, always coloured and influenced by that which precedes and follows.
It is peculiarly needful to bear this observation in mind in considering fully the almost startling principle stated in the verse which is prefixed to this discourse. A kind of spiritual omniscience appears to be attributed to believers. Catechisms, confessions, creeds, teachers, preachers, seem to be superseded by a stroke of the Apostles pen, by what we are half tempted to consider as a magnificent exaggeration. The text sounds as if it outstripped even the fulfilment of the promise of the new covenant contained in Jeremiahs prophecy-“they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them.”
The passages just before and after St. Johns splendid annunciation in our text are occupied with the subject of Antichrist, here first mentioned in Scripture. In this section of our Epistle Antichrist is
(1) revealed, and
(2) refuted.
(1) Antichrist is revealed by the very crisis which the Church was then traversing. From this especially, from the transitory character of a world drifting by them in unceasing mutation, the Apostle is led to consider this as one of those crisis hours of the Churchs history, each of which may be the last hour, and which is assuredly- in the language of primitive Christianity-a last hour. The Apostle therefore exclaims with fatherly affection-“Little children, it is a last hour.”
Deep in the heart of the Apostolic Church, because it came from those who had received it from Christ, there was one awful anticipation. St. John in this passage gives it a name. He remembers Who had told the Jews that “if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.” He can announce to them that “as ye have heard this Antichrist cometh, even so now” (precisely as ye have heard) “many antichrists have come into existence and are around you, whereby we know that it is a last hour.” The name Antichrist occurs only in these Epistles, and seems purposely intended to denote both one who occupies the place of Christ, and one who is against Christ. In “the Antichrist” the antichristian principle is personally concentrated. The conception of representative men is one which has become familiar to modern students of the philosophy of history. Such representative men, at once the products of the past, moulders of the present, and creative of the future, sum up in themselves tendencies and principles good and evil, and project them in a form equally compacted and intensified into the coming generations. Shadows and anticipations of Antichrist the holiest of the Churchs sons have sometimes seen, even in the high places of the Church. But it is evident that as yet the Antichrist has not come. For wherever St. John mentions this fearful impersonation of evil, he connects the manifestation of his influence with absolute denial of the true Manhood, of the Messiahship, of the everlasting sonship of Jesus. of the Father, Who is His and our Father. In negation of the Personality of God, in the substitution of a glittering, but unreal, idea of human goodness and active philanthropy for the historical Christ, we of this age may not improbably hear his advancing footsteps, and foresee the advent of a day when anti-christianity shall find its great representative man.
(2) Antichrist is also refuted by a principle common to the life of Christians and by its result.
The principle by which he is refuted is a gift of insight lodged in the Church at large, and partaken of by all faithful souls.
A hint of a solemn crisis had been conveyed to the Christians of Asia Minor by secessions from the great Christian community. “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us (which they did not, but went out) that they might be made manifest that not all are of us.” Not only this. “Yea further, ye yourselves have a hallowing oil from Him who is hallowed, a chrism from the Christ, an unction from the Holy One, even from the Son of God.” Chrism (as we are reminded by the most accurate of scholars) is always the material with which anointing is performed, never the act of anointing; it points to the unction of prophets, priests, and kings under the Old Testament, in whose sacrifices and mystic language oil symbolises the Holy Spirit as the spirit of joy and freedom. Quite possibly there may be some allusion to a literal use of oil in Baptism and Confirmation, which began at a very early period; though it is equally possible that the material may have arisen from the spiritual, and not in the reverse order. But beyond all question the real predominant reference is to the Holy Ghost. In the chrism here mentioned there is a feature characteristic of St. Johns style. For there is first a faint prelusive note which (as we find in several other important subjects) is faintly struck and seems to die away, but is afterwards taken up, and more fully brought out. The full distinct mention of the Holy Spirit comes like a burst of the music of the “Veni Creator,” carrying on the fainter prelude when it might seem to have been almost lost. The first reverential, almost timid hint, is succeeded by another, brief but significant-almost dogmatically expressive of the relation of the Holy Spirit to Christ as His Chrism, “the Chrism of Him.” We shall presently have a direct mention of the Holy Ghost. “Hereby we know that He abideth in us, from the Spirit which He gave us.”
Antichrist is refuted by a result of this great principle of the life of the Holy Spirit in the living Church. “Ye have” chrism from the Christ; Antichrist shall not lay his unhallowing disanointing hand upon you. As a result of this, “ye know all things.”
How are we to understand this startling expression?
If we receive any teachers as messengers commissioned by God, it is evident that their message must be communicated to us through the medium of human language. They come to us with minds that have been in contact with a Mind of infinite knowledge, and deliver utterances of universal import. They are therefore under an obligation to use language which is capable of being misunderstood by some persons. Our Lord and His Apostles so spoke at times. Two very different classes of men constantly misinterpret words like those of our text. The rationalist does so with a sinister smile; the fanatic with a cry of hysterical triumph. The first may point his epigram with effective reference to the exaggerated promise which is belied by the ignorance of so many ardent believers; the second may advance his absurd claim to personal infallibility in all things spiritual.
Yet an Apostle calmly says “ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.” This, however, is but another asterisk directing the eye to the Masters promise in the Gospel, which is at once the warrant and the explanation of the utterance here. “The Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.” {Joh 14:26} The express limitation of the Saviours promise is the implied limitation of St. Johns statement. “The Holy Ghost has been sent, according to this unfailing pledge. He teaches you (and, if He teaches, you know) all things which Christ has said, as far as their substance is written down in a true record-all things of the new creation spoken by our Lord, preserved by the help of the Spirit in the memories of chosen witnesses with unfading freshness, by the same Spirit unfolded and interpreted to you.”
We should observe in what spirit and to whom St. John speaks.
He does not speak in the strain which would be adopted by a missionary in addressing a convert lately brought out of heathenism into the fold of Christ. He does not like a modern preacher or tract writer at once divide his observations into two parts, one for the converted, one for the unconverted; all are his “dear ones” as beloved, his “sons” as brought into close spiritual relationship with himself. He classes them simply as young and old, with their respective graces of strength and knowledge. All are looked upon as “abiding”; almost the one exhortation is to abide unto the end in a condition upon which all have already entered, and in which some have long continued. We feel throughout the calmness and assurance of a spiritual teacher writing to Christian men who, had either been born in the atmosphere of Christian tradition, or had lived in it for many years. They are again and again appealed to on the ground of a common Christian confidence-“we know.” They have all the articles of the Christian creed, the great inheritance of a faithful summary of the words and works of Christ. The Gospel which Paul at first preached in Asia Minor was the starting point of the truth which remained among them, illustrated, expanded, applied, but absolutely unaltered. What the Christians whom St. John has in view really want is the revival of familiar truths, not the impartation of new. No spiritual voyage of discovery is needed; they have only to explore well known regions. The memory and the affections must be stimulated. The truths which have become “cramped and bed ridden” in the dormitory of the soul must acquire elasticity from exercise. The accumulation of ashes must be blown away, and the spark of fire beneath fanned into flame. This capacity of revival, of expansion, of quickened life, of developed truth, is in the unction common to the faithful, in the latent possibilities of the new birth. The same verse to which we have before referred as the best interpreter of this should be consulted again. There is an instructive distinction between the tenses-“as His unction is teaching” -” as it taught you.” The teaching was, once for all, the creed definite and fixed, the body of truth a sum total looked upon as one. “The unction taught.” Once for all the Holy Spirit made known the Incarnation and stamped the recorded words of Christ with His seal. But there are depths of thought about His person which need to be reverently explored. There is an energy in His work which was not exhausted in the few years of its doing, and which is not imprisoned within the brief chronicle in which it is written. There are a spirit and a life in His words. In one aspect they have the strength of the tornado, which advances in a narrow line; but every foot of the column, as if armed with a tooth of steel, grinds and cuts into pieces all which resists it. Those words have also depths of tenderness, depths of wisdom, into which eighteen centuries have looked down and never yet seen the last of their meaning. Advancing time does hut broaden the interpretation of the wisdom and the sympathy of those words. Applications of their significance are being discovered by Christian souls in forms as new and manifold as the claims of human need. The Church collectively is like one sanctified mind meditating incessantly upon the Incarnation; attaining more and more to an understanding of that character as it widens in a circle of glory round the form of its historical manifestation-considering how those words may be applied not only to self, but to humanity. The new wants of each successive generation bring new help out of that inexhaustible store. The Church may have “decided opinions”; but she has not the “deep slumber” which is said to accompany them. How can she be fast asleep who is ever learning from a teacher Who is always supplying her with fresh and varied lessons? The Church must be ever learning, because the anointing which “taught” once for all is also ever “teaching.”
This profound saying is therefore chiefly true of Christians as a whole. Yet each individual believer may surely have a part in it. “There is a teacher in the heart who has also a chair in heaven.” “The Holy Spirit who dwells in the justified soul,” says a pious writer, “is a great director.” May we not add that He is a great catechist? In difficulties, whether worldly, intellectual, or spiritual, thousands for a time helpless and ignorant, in presence of difficulties through which they could not make their way, have found with surprise how true in the sequel our text has become to them. For we all know how different things, persons, truths, ideas may become, as they are seen at different times and in different lights, as they are seen in relation to God and truth or outside that relation. The bread in Holy Communion is unchanged in substance; but some new and glorious relation is superadded to it. It is devoted by its consecration to the noblest use manward and Godward, so that St. Paul speaks of it with hushed reverence as “The Body.” {1Co 11:29} It seems to be a part of the same law that some one-once perhaps frivolous, commonplace, sinful-is taken into the hand of the great High Priest, broken with sorrow and penitence, and blessed; and thereafter he is at once personally the same, and yet another higher and better by that awful consecration to another use. So again with some truth of creed or catechism which we have fallen into the fallacy of supposing that we know because it is familiar. It may be a truth that is sweet or one that is tremendous. It awaits its consecration, its blessing, its transformation into a something which in itself is the same, yet which is other to us. That is to say, the familiar truth is old, in itself: in substance and expression. It needs no other, and can have no better formula. To change the formula would be to alter the truth; but to us it is taught newly with a fuller and nobler exposition by the unction which is “ever teaching,” whereby we “know all things.”