As for you, let that which you have heard from the beginning abide in you. If that abide in you, which you have heard from the beginning, you also shall abide in the Son and in the Father.
υμεις ουν ο ηκουσατε απ αρχης εν υμιν μενετω εαν εν υμιν μεινη ο απ αρχης ηκουσατε και υμεις εν τω υιω και εν τω πατρι μενειτε
9 Church Fathers comment on this verse
But keep within yourselves what you heard from the beginning, namely, that Christ is God. This is what the words mean: "Let it abide in you." If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you also will abide in the Son and in the Father, that is, you will be in communion with Him.
He stops the mouth of impiety, teaches the doctrines of piety, and calls his hearers to hold fast to them. He says that from this they have communion with both the Father and the Son, and the promise of eternal life.
Hold fast with your whole heart to the faith and teaching which you received through the Apostles from the first, newly born Church. This alone will make you partakers of the grace of God.
This is why John wrote the epistle. It was not to teach the ignorant the truth, but to confirm those who know the truth in the truth they have known. Thus they would constantly abide in communion with God and attain the goal of their calling in Jesus Christ.
Therefore, what you heard from the beginning, let it abide in you. What has been handed down to you, preserve always. Believe what you have been taught. Fulfill what you have been commanded to fulfill.
Be firm and unshaken in this teaching. Do not listen to false teachers. Do not accept any instructions contrary to the teaching handed down to you.
"If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father." If you unchangeably preserve what you were taught by the Apostles and their successors. Then by the power of the anointing, through the action of grace, you will also abide in communion with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and with God the Father.
Abiding in this communion, you will walk just as Jesus Christ walked (v. 6), following His example. You will attain what Jesus Christ promised us. And what did Jesus Christ promise us?
"And this is the promise which He promised us: eternal life."
With these words the Apostle turns to the faithful and expresses before them the inward convictions of his heart. He is convinced that, knowing the full immutability of the Gospel truth, they will never turn away from it. Rather, they will preserve inviolate until the end of their life faith in God the Father who called them and in His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
How should one understand the words, "you know all things," if shortly before this it was said that only the fathers, and not the children or young men, had known the One without beginning? If all in the Church know all things equally, what is the advantage of the fathers?
If their advantage is that they have known the One without beginning, does it not follow that others do not yet possess this advantage? We must acknowledge that when the Apostle says, "you have an anointing" and "you have no need that anyone teach you," he means by "you" the whole local Church.
He does not mean each individual member separately, for among its members there were also children. The Church truly knows all things, because within her there are those who know and are able to teach others.
There are also those who do not know, yet are ready to learn from those who know, according to their ability and receptivity. The knowledge of some is ascribed to all because of the universal and inseparable unity.
The ignorance of some is passed over in silence. It will be replaced by knowledge that does not come from outside, but abides within the Church.
The words, "you have no need that anyone teach you," must be understood in relation to those false teachers who left the Church, or who were never in her. They strive to bring into the Church their falsely named truth and their falsely named reason.
The holy Apostle warns against them when he says: you have no need that anyone, meaning someone coming from outside, a stranger to Christ's fold, should teach you. In the same way he warned above against the antichrists.
According to him, "they went out from us, but they were not of us" (v. 19). Members of Christ's Church must certainly beware not of their own teachers, but of these outsiders and impious men.
After this, the "anointing from the Holy One" should not be understood as the anointing proper to each believer individually, given in the second mystery, chrismation. Rather, it means the Holy Spirit who abides in the Church and instructs her pastors to rightly divide the word of truth.
If one understood here the anointing given to each person separately, it would follow that it had already taught everyone. Then there would be no distinction between children and fathers.
But if one understands the Spirit dwelling in the whole fullness of the Church, then it is clear that, while teaching the whole Church, He diversifies His gifts among her individual members. He divides operations and ministries (1 Cor 12:4-11).
"Let what you heard abide," and so forth. What you heard, meaning from the Apostles and through them from the Lord Jesus Himself, let this abide. That is, let the word, teaching, and preaching live in you, rule in you, and penetrate your spirit and your whole life.
Let it be the active principle of all your life and activity. In other words, always and unchangeably preserve what has been handed down to you as the right, true, and living faith and teaching.
Fulfill what you have been commanded to fulfill. Do not listen to false teachers, and do not accept their false teachings. Then you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.
That is, you will remain in communion with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and with God the Father. You will receive the promise that He Himself promised you. What is this promise?
"Therefore let what you heard from the beginning abide in you" (1 Jn 2:24), that is, our preaching that Jesus is the Son of God. Hold firmly in your confession to the dogma of the divinity of Jesus Christ.
In this case, according to the Apostle's expression, "you also will abide in the Son and in the Father" (1 Jn 2:24), that is, in firm union with Them.
That is, stand firmly in the teaching in which you were instructed when you entered Christianity. "If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father" (1 Jn 2:24).
It is noteworthy that St. John the Apostle does not present Christian fidelity to the truth and union with the Father and the Son as already directly guaranteed for them. This remains true though he has said above that they have an anointing from the Holy One and know all things.
On the contrary, he here makes this fidelity and this union conditional on Christian faithfulness to the teaching first handed down. What can be concluded from this?
The anointing from the Holy One, or the outpouring of gracious gifts in the mystery of chrismation, is not some single and exclusive guide for Christians into the truth. It is not so independent that no external teachers of faith are needed.
Nor does it make unnecessary any universally binding and guiding patterns or symbols of faith. The whole action of the mystical anointing is directed toward opening people's hearts and minds more widely to receive the teaching already handed down to them.
It also strengthens their moral powers to bring this teaching into life. Yet full room remains for human freedom. This explains the conditional form of St. John's words.
"If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father." Therefore, if Christians are unfaithful and betray what they heard from the beginning, even the anointing from the Holy One will not draw them into union with God.
Here one involuntarily recalls words of similar meaning from the Son of God Himself, recorded by the same Apostle John: "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word." Only then "My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him" (Jn 14:23).
Directing Christians' attention especially to heretical false teaching, the Apostle points to the most important error preached by the Ebionite Cerinthus and his followers, who denied the Godhead of Jesus Christ.
Without entering into a detailed refutation of this error, and without offering biblical or other proofs of its falsehood, the Apostle views it from his lofty theological standpoint. From there its absurdity is clearly revealed.
Having in mind the clear teaching of Jesus Christ concerning His consubstantiality with the Father (see Jn 1:1; 1 Jn 1:1-4), he says that heretics of this kind deny the Father also.
By contrast, whoever confesses Jesus Christ as the Son of God acknowledges God the Father also. "He who has seen Me has seen the Father. I am in the Father and the Father in Me," says Jesus Christ (Jn 14:9-10).
From this the Apostle's transition to the thought of Christians' union with the Father Himself is understandable (v. 24). This was also clearly expressed by Jesus Christ Himself.
"As You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us," He said in the so-called high-priestly prayer to the Father (Jn 17:21).
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 26 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS