The Anointing that Belongs to Believers (1 Jn 2:26–29) from South Woods Baptist Church on Vimeo.

Continuing in the Christian faith after professing to believe in the Lord Jesus may be the greatest challenge that we face. It’s not that the object of that faith—Jesus Christ—is in anyway unworthy of diligence and consistency. It rather has to do with us and with the substance and reality of our faith. If our faith in Christ does not run heart-deep so that it produces fruit, then the time comes when we slip and fade from following Christ.

Every spiritual awakening has both genuine converts and spurious ones. That reality confronted me during the Jesus Movement of the late 60s and early 70s. We saw massive responses with outward professions of faith to sermons and testimonies—some of which were not very good sermons and not very clear gospel testimonies. Some continue in the faith to this day, giving evidence that the gospel took root in the heart and continues to produce fruit. Yet many of those professing Christ went up like a bottle rocket with sparkles and bangs, but quickly fizzled into a coldness and deadness toward the gospel. They demonstrated they were never converted. How do we explain that scene?

In the parable of the sower (soils), Jesus explains that some outright reject Him despite hearing the gospel. Others give a quick, shallow response to the hearing of the gospel but do not last past the first pressures and opposition to Christ. Still others make profession of believing in Jesus but have never repented of the entanglements of the world, and so do not last. None of these images picture true faith. Instead, Jesus explains that true faith in Him results, ultimately, in fruitfulness. Not all bear the same measure of fruit but the reality of knowing Him works deeply into the life so that there will be ongoing evidence that Jesus Christ is Lord and life to all who truly believe in Him (Matthew 13).

Why do they bear fruit? They abide in the Vine, as Jesus put it (John 15), and that results in gospel fruit. Abiding or continuing in the Vine expresses Christian perseverance. We’re called to persevere in the faith by abiding in Jesus Christ. But what does that imply? John looks at it in two ways in this passage.

I. Abide in Jesus in light of false teachers

Our text contains two imperatives (commands) that state the same thing: “abide in Him.” Surrounding the two commands are a series of statements (indicative moods in the Greek) and certainties that have yet to take place (indicated by the Greek subjunctive mood). But the central focus is on this two-fold command: “abide in Him,” with the statements and future certainties helping us see why and how we abide in Him.

John uses “abide” more than any other biblical writer. It’s a central theme in his Gospel and used 26 times in his epistles (22 in 1 John). The word “abide,” (meno) means to continue in or to remain, so it expresses precisely the whole idea of perseverance. For in perseverance we’re continuing in relationship to Christ. Furthermore, abiding is not some kind of cold, sterile persistence in duty without the vividness of life. Instead, as John uses the term in John 15 with the image of the branch abiding in the vine, he means that abiding is “continuous dependence on the vine, constant reliance upon him, persistent spiritual imbibing of his life” [D.A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, 516]. The call to “abide in Him” means that you find your whole life in Jesus, you live in constant dependence upon Him, you learn to rely upon Him day-after-day, you trust in His faithfulness and power and grace for continuing as His follower. Just as a branch has its in the vine, even so we have our life as Christians through union with Christ. Yet how do we keep abiding in Him?

(1) You can because of the Holy Spirit

John has already declared, “But you have an anointing from the Holy One” (2:20), referring to the Holy Spirit who indwells all believers. Now he continues tha[...]