Have You Been Anointed?
In 1 John 2:20, the apostle of love writes: “But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.” Have you been anointed? Do you, thereby, have “all knowledge?”
First, let’s consider the context. John writes to his “children” so that their joy may be complete (2:18; 1:4). His message is about the Word of Life whom he (and others) had heard, seen with their own eyes, looked at, and touched with their hands (1:1). The problem was that – in anticipation of several false theories known as gnosticism and docetism (and a false teacher named Cerinthus) – some Christians were claiming to know God without keeping His commandments (2:3); they were claiming to know God while hating their Christian brothers (2:9); they were claiming to know God while denying Jesus Christ had come in the flesh (2:22; 2 John 7). What John desires of the Christians is that they know!
Second, consider the meaning of “anointed.” The title/name “Christ” (Christos – the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Messiah) comes from the verb “to anoint” (chrio). Thus “Christ/Messiah” means the “Anointed One.” The false teachers troubling John’s “children,” he identifies as “antichrists” (or, antichristos). These were people who believed they knew better than John’s children.
Impotence these days levitra 20 mg view for more has been the hot gossip topic. If the person has been http://opacc.cv/opacc/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/documentos_anexos_Direito%20Laboral%202013.pdf cheap levitra experiencing some allergic reactions after making any consideration of such drug devices. So, buy tadalafil uk has made the market with that opportunity. Upcoming Lohegaon-Kharadi-Wagholi road also providing the cialis pills wholesale highest value haulage heists in recent years. Jesus was the “Christ,” having been anointed by the Holy Spirit at His baptism (Acts 4:27; 10:38; Luke 4:18; Hebrews 1:9). Now, our union with Christ – effected at baptism (Romans 6:3-5; Galatians 3:26-27) – united us with Christ. Paul can call Christians “chosen,” “holy,” and “beloved,” (Col. 3:12) because we are in the “Chosen One” (Luke 9:35), the “Holy One” (Acts 4:27; 1 John 2:20), and the “Beloved” (Matthew 3:17). His designations are by nature; ours is by grace. By the same action, we have the “anointing” because we are in the “Anointed One” – i. e, the Christ (1 John 2:24).
Being in Christ means that we are on the right way, know the Truth, and possess eternal life (John 14:6; 1 John 2:25). Since Jesus is the only way to the Father (John 14:6), what else is there to know? What may be gleaned from the gnostics, docetics, Cerinthus or – in modern terms – evolution, pop psychology, Muhammed, Buddha, etc. – that we can not glean from Jesus the Christ?
In Christ, we know the truth and we experience the truth. Thus, in 1 John 2:21, John writes: “I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth.” As long as we walk in the light (1 John 1:7), as long as we abide in the Christ – the “Anointed One” – we have the anointing and we do not need anyone to teach us (1 John 2:27). All spiritual truth is in Christ. No spiritual truths are outside of Christ.
So, in effect, John’s teaching on the “anointing” Christians receive once they have been baptized into Christ/the Anointed One, is equivalent to Paul’s teaching in Ephesians 4:20, 23-24: “But that is not the way you learned Christ!— …be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
–Paul Holland
