The study continues in 1 John toward the end of chapter 2, focusing on verses 18–28 and the word abide.
1 John 2:18–28: It is the last time. Antichrist will come; even now there are many antichrists. They went out from us, but they were not of us; if they had been of us they would have continued (abided) with us. They went out that it might be made manifest they were not all of us. You have an anointing from the Holy One and know all things. These things are written because you know the truth, and no lie is of the truth. The liar is the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ. He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. Let that abide in you which you have heard from the beginning. If that which you have heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. This is the promise: eternal life. These things are written concerning those who seduce you. The anointing received from Him abides in you, and you need not that any man teach you. The same anointing teaches of all things and is truth and is no lie; as it has taught you, you will abide in Him. Little children, abide in Him, that when He appears you may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.
Meno means to stay, to reside, to call a place home, to make yourself at home—not only physical location. The same word appears in verse 19 of the antichrists, three times in verse 24 (the King James uses abide, remain, and continue for one word), and three more times in verses 27–28 of the anointing and of abiding in Him.
1 John 2:14: the Word of God abides in the young men, and they have overcome the wicked one. What is heard, taught, and read in the Word can abide in a person. It can also go in one ear and out the other, or be learned and ignored so that it is not at home.
Abiding in the Son. John 15:4–5: Abide in Me and I in you. The branch cannot bear fruit from itself unless it abides in the vine; neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him brings forth much fruit; without Me you can do nothing. A dead branch may still be attached; abiding is being at home and not uncooperative with the vine that feeds it. A Christian can bear fruit or be carnal without losing salvation or attachment to the vine. Carnality means not abiding correctly.
Romans 6:20–23: When you were slaves of the sin you were free from righteousness. What fruit did you have in those things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. Now, having been made free from the sin and enslaved to God, you have your fruit unto holiness and the end eternal life. The wages of sin is death; the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Unsaved fruit was from the sin nature. Saved people have opportunity for fruit unto holiness, yet can still hinder fruit by carnality.
John 15:7: If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you will ask what you want and it will be done to you. In this the Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so shall you be My disciples. John 15:16: You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give you. The qualifier is abiding in Him and His words abiding in you.
1 John 3:18–24: Love in deed and in truth. If our heart condemns us not, we have confidence toward God. Whatever we ask we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. This is His commandment: believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another. He who keeps His commandments abides in Him and He in him. By this we know He abides in us: by the Spirit He has given us. Commandments are not stored off to the side while another agenda is at home.
1 John 5:14–15: This is the confidence we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. If we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know we have the petitions we asked of Him. Asking is not for anything you want; it is for anything He wants. James 4: you ask amiss that you may consume it on your pleasures. Using asking correctly teaches what the will of God is.
John 15:9–10: As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Abide in My love. If you keep My commandments you will abide in My love, even as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
1 John 3:4–6: Everyone doing sin is also doing lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him is no sin. Whoever abides in Him is not sinning. Whoever is sinning has not seen Him neither known Him. Present tense: the one currently abiding is not currently sinning. This is not a claim that one abiding once never sins again. It is John’s way of speaking of spiritual versus carnal. Abiding in the Son has a positive effect on behavior. The question is not only position in Christ but whether you are abiding in that position.
Abiding in the Father. 1 John 2:24 joins abiding in the Son and in the Father. There is a position in the Father as well as in the Son. 1 Thessalonians 1:1 (and 2 Thessalonians 1:1): the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The anointing received from Him abides in you (1 John 2:27). 2 Corinthians 1:21–22: He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who has also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
1 John 4:7–16: Love one another, for love is of God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. The love of God was manifested toward us because God sent His one-of-a-kind Son into the world that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No man has seen Deity at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us. Hereby we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. God is love; he who abides in love abides in God and God in him. In this context the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all named. Abiding is linked to loving one another, confessing that Jesus is the Son of God, and abiding in love.
1 John 2:23: whoever denies the Son does not have the Father. 2 John 5–9: the commandment from the beginning is that we love one another; this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. Many deceivers do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh; this is a deceiver and an antichrist. Whoever goes forward and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. Doctrine is for belief and practice. Walking according to the commandment affects having the Father and the Son.
The three are linked: what was heard from the beginning abiding in you, you abiding in the Son, and you abiding in the Father. You will not have one without the other. You will not abide in the Son and the Father while ignoring what they command or failing to love one another. If the new commandment is not at home in you, you miss the effects of abiding. You cannot claim to abide in the Son while remaining uncomfortable with what He tells you to do. John states the crux without Paul’s full mechanics: if you are not loving one another, you are not abiding in Him. First John loops the same connections so they are not treated as isolated subjects.
Key verse: 1 John 2:24. Let that abide in you which you have heard from the beginning. If that which you have heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.
