But you have the unction from the Holy One and know all things.
και υμεις χρισμα εχετε απο του αγιου και οιδατε παντα
10 Church Fathers comment on this verse
After the Apostle had said what came before, someone might think that he ascribed knowledge of this only to himself and therefore boasted over the other believers. So he fittingly adds: "And you have an anointing." See also 1 Jn 2:21.
The Gentiles are strong in hand. Having raised war against idols, they were anointed for this with the holy oil of baptism, of which John the Theologian said: "And you have an anointing from the Holy One." You all know that you were anointed in order to prepare yourselves to go forth bravely into battle. In the same way, the Gentiles needed further help for their struggle.
For through holy baptism you received the sacred anointing, and through it the Divine Spirit, who leads you into all truth. Therefore you have understood that I write this to you not as to those who do not know, but as to those who know.
The spiritual anointing is the Holy Spirit Himself, Who is given in the Mystery of invisible anointing. The author of the epistle affirms that all his hearers have already been anointed by the Holy Spirit and know how to distinguish evil and good people. Therefore he has no need to teach them what the anointing itself teaches them. Since he is speaking here about heretics, he emphasizes that his hearers have an anointing from the Holy One. This is in contrast to heretics and all those who are from antichrist. They are deprived of this gift of the Holy Spirit and do not belong to the Lord, Whom the prophets called the Holy One. Rather, these latter are servants of Satan, who has nothing of holiness and possesses the place of perdition.
Thus Saint John, showing why he does not write more extensively but offers only brief instructions, says that he writes to those who know the truth and do not need it unfolded in detail. "But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things." You are true Christians, anointed by the Holy Spirit, by Whom you were sealed in the day of redemption (Eph 4:30). You participate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. By the power of this anointing you know everything that must be known for receiving salvation, for distinguishing saving truths from error and deception, and for always preserving the true faith while avoiding every false teaching and ruinous sin.
In the concept of anointing the Apostle joins the action of the Holy Spirit, by Whom all believers are anointed in the Mystery of Chrismation, and the knowledge which believers have already acquired and continue to acquire through the word of God and oral Christian instruction (verse 24). Remaining in the Church, they must always preserve this knowledge, being assisted by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Therefore the Apostle, presupposing in Christians the anointing by the Holy Spirit through the merits of Christ the Savior, says further: I have written to you not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. I have not written to offer you detailed teaching about the truths of the right faith, as if you had not known this teaching until now. No, I have written this because you, having an anointing from the Holy One, know this teaching of truth. Likewise you know that every lie, or every false teaching that the false teachers have begun to spread, does not come from the true faith or from the depths of the holy Church, whose Head is Jesus Christ. I only remind you, as those who know the true teaching, to beware of false teachers.
The word anointing, chrisma, expresses the symbolic action of anointing with oil, signifying the outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In the New Testament, the word anoint directly expresses the imparting of the Holy Spirit, for example in Acts 4:27; 10:38; 2 Cor 1:21. Hence Christ means the Anointed One, in Hebrew, Messiah. Christ is the name especially assigned to our Lord Jesus, to Whom the gifts of the Holy Spirit were imparted "not by measure," and more than to His partakers (Jn 3:34; Lk 4:18; Acts 10:38; Ps 44:8). Hence all who have received the Holy Spirit in the Mystery of Chrismation (verse 27) can be called Christians. So too in the Old Testament those anointed with oil, or consecrated to special service to God and the Church, were called messiahs.
From the Holy One does not mean from the Holy Spirit or from God the Father, but from Jesus Christ, Who sent the Comforter from the Father (Jn 15:26). For below, in verse 27, John replaces the words "anointing from the Holy One" with the words "the anointing from Him." He is the One Who gave the promise of eternal life (verse 25), Who will appear on earth as Judge (verse 28), Who is righteous (verse 29; cf. verse 1), and pure (3:3), or holy. Saint John the Evangelist also calls the Son of God the Holy One in Rev 3:7 (cf. Acts 3:14; Mk 1:24; Lk 4:34). And you know all things. What is meant here is not the perfect knowledge of the Christian, which in this same chapter is called knowledge of Jesus Christ (verse 3). It means only the knowledge of everything necessary for avoiding the temptations of false teachers and for distinguishing truth from the deceivers of falsehood. Saint John the Evangelist explains this in the following verse, verse 21.
And you have an anointing from the Holy One, and know all things. Here Jesus Christ Himself is called the Holy One (compare Rev 3:7), as the Giver of the Holy Spirit to all believers and as the One Who obtained Him from the Father (Jn 15:26; 16:7). Therefore the anointing given to Christians is also called received from Him below, in verse 27. Speaking of the appearance of antichrists, the Apostle does not consider it necessary to speak at length about this subject, which ought to be well known to Christians. Their inner conviction and firm knowledge must help them detect the appearance of antichrists. The Apostle speaks not to teach, but to confirm them in what they know. Anointing, chrisma, is used in adaptation to the words Christos, Christianos, anointed.
The Apostle's thought is expressed thus: you can easily distinguish antichrists, the opponents of Christ, because you are true Christians. You are anointed, and Christian means anointed. The name anointed could be applied to Christians with all the more right because, according to the testimony of the Fathers of the Church, from apostolic times already, anointing with chrism was used for the baptized to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This is found in Cyril, Catechesis 3; Gregory the Great 1:5, 19-20, and others. This anointing, used in the Old Testament only for consecrating kings, high priests, and prophets, became common in the New Testament for all Christians. For they were chosen to be kings and priests to God through Christ (Rev 1:6), and to form a kingdom of priests (1 Pet 2:9). Accompanied by the inner anointing of the Holy Spirit, it imparts to Christians, along with many other gifts, the gift of knowledge and understanding in a high degree. Therefore the Apostle adds: and you know all things. Nevertheless, on the basis of these words of the Apostle, we must not ascribe to ourselves some divine knowledge. Nor should we consider any teaching and instruction in the truths of faith unnecessary for ourselves, as some sectarians think. Such self-confidence in the sufficiency and correctness of one's religious knowledge is very similar to the self-confidence of the Pharisees who questioned the man born blind whom Jesus Christ had healed. They asserted that the One Who healed him was a sinful man and therefore could not have healed him. When the man who received sight observed that God does not hear sinners, they proudly answered that he had been born altogether in sins and could not teach them, who considered themselves infallible (Jn 9:24, 31, 34). Not all knowledge belongs to the Christian, but only knowledge of everything necessary for salvation. Only such knowledge is given to him by the Holy Spirit during Chrismation.
However. The Apostle specifies the reason why he does not set forth such an important subject as the teaching about the antichrists and the antichrist in detail and at length, but gives only brief instructions. The reason is that the readers of the epistle, like all Christians, already have a due understanding of the truth of Christian teaching from that anointing which they received from the Holy One. By it they can rightly distinguish truth from falsehood. You have an anointing. In the Old Testament, anointing was a symbolic action signifying the pouring out upon the one anointed of special gifts of God for special service to God or to the Church of God. Such were the high-priestly, prophetic, and royal ministries (see note on Mt 1:1).
In the first period of the Christian Church, Christians received the special gifts of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands. Soon, however, this action was replaced by anointing, as is evident, among other places, from the passage under consideration and from the epistles of the Apostle Paul (2 Cor 1:21-22; Eph 4:30). In the concept of anointing the Apostle joins both the action of the Holy Spirit, by Whom all believers are anointed and sealed in the Mystery of Chrismation, and the knowledge which believers acquire through this. This knowledge itself teaches them faith and the knowledge of it (1 Jn 2:27), distinguishing truth from falsehood. From the Holy One means from the Lord Jesus Christ, as is evident from the similar expression in verse 27. For the Lord sent from the Father the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, Who distributes His gifts to believers, giving them anointing and sealing them. John also calls the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Holy One in the Apocalypse (Rev 3:7; Acts 3:14; Mk 1:24; Lk 4:34). And you know all things. This is an absolute expression in place of a relative one. All things does not mean that a Christian knows absolutely everything, which is impossible. It means all that is essential and necessary for salvation, and for distinguishing saving truths from the error and falsehood of false teachers. Deceivers, or antichrists, both err themselves and lead believers into error. They are deceived and deceive in such a way that without special spiritual illumination from above, it is difficult even for the simple in faith, and also for the skilled, to distinguish their teaching and actions from the truth. Therefore, among other reasons, Christians have been given an anointing from the Holy One. By it they can know and do know everything they need to know for salvation, so as to preserve the right faith and avoid false teaching and false teachers.
As the highest and final assurance of the truth of Christianity, the Apostle appeals to a special gracious spirit. By its illumination Christians can judge unfailingly and correctly about the true Christian faith and about life, especially in comparison with the false teaching and indecent life of heretics. This spirit, or power, by which Christians can clearly distinguish every truth from every falsehood, he calls an anointing. It was received through anointing with holy oil (see 2 Cor 1:21), which from ancient times was a symbol of the outpouring of special gifts (see Ex 39; 1 Sam 10:1; Ps 44:8; Is 61:1). Thus by anointing one may understand not only the gift of understanding the truth, but also the very source of the gifts, the Holy Spirit.
Of Him Jesus Christ says to the Apostles: "But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you" (Jn 14:26). Saint Basil the Great speaks similarly to the Apostle John about the action of the Spirit of God in the hearts of Christians: "As in a healthy eye there is the power or faculty of sight, so is the action of the Holy Spirit in a purified soul."
To remain in communion with God, one must not only renounce attachment to the goods of this world. One must also shun false teachers, the antichrists, who are opponents of Christ.
The Apostle does not set forth the errors of the false teachers in detail, because he says: "You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things." By "anointing from the Holy One," the Apostle means the imparting of the gifts of the Holy Spirit to believers in the mystery of chrismation.
At the same time, he means the knowledge believers receive when they enter the Church and accept the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This knowledge is enough to distinguish falsehood from truth. One need only abide in the teaching taught by "this anointing."
Therefore the Apostle does not enter into details. He points only to the surest and most decisive mark of false teaching. "Who is the liar, if not he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, who denies the Father and the Son."
In other words, the liar, false teacher, and antichrist in the general sense is the one who denies or distorts the teaching concerning the divine or human nature of Jesus Christ. Such a man does not acknowledge that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the Son of God and Savior of the world, the God-man, consubstantial with God the Father.
The Apostle's form of expression means that such a man is not merely a liar, but the liar above all others: "Who is the liar, if not he who denies?" There may be liars of various kinds, who deny or distort one teaching or another, one dogma or another.
But the one who denies or distorts the fundamental and essentially important teaching concerning the God-manhood of Jesus Christ denies the chief cornerstone in the building of the Church. He is the liar above all others, a liar of liars, an antichrist or a son of antichrist.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 10 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS