First John 2:27 says, “As for you, the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone teach you; but as His anointing teaches you concerning all things and is true and is not a lie, and even as it has taught you, abide in Him.” The anointing is the moving and working of the indwelling compound Spirit, who is fully typified by the anointing oil, the compound ointment, in Exodus 30:23-25. This all-inclusive life-giving Spirit from the Holy One entered into us at the time of our regeneration and abides in us forever (1 John 2:27); by Him the young children know the Father (v. 13) and know the truth (v. 21). As we abide in Christ, we enjoy the divine anointing, which is a wonderful person, the Spirit, moving and working in us. As this anointing abides in us and teaches us, we abide in Him.
The anointing is the moving and working of the indwelling compound Spirit to apply all the ingredients of the processed Triune God and His activities into our inner being so that we may be fully mingled with Him for His corporate expression (vv. 20, 27; cf. Eph. 4:4-6). Moreover, the anointing, as the moving and working of the compound Spirit within us, anoints God into us so that we may be saturated with God, possess God, and understand the mind of God.
The Greek word for “Christ” is Christos, which means the “anointed One,” and the Greek word for “anointing” is chrisma. Both words are derived from the same root. Now we must go on to see that Christ as the anointed One becomes the anointing. Because He is the anointed One, He has an abundance of ointment with which to anoint us. Eventually, the anointed One becomes the anointing One. In fact, He even becomes the anointing.
In 2 Corinthians 1:21 Paul says, “The One who firmly attaches us with you unto Christ and has anointed us is God.” Because we have been attached by God to Christ, the anointed One, we are spontaneously anointed with Him by God. Christ has been anointed with the divine ointment, and the ointment that is upon Him now flows to us. This is pictured in Psalm 133, which says that the anointing oil runs down, or flows, from the head of Aaron to his beard and even to the hem of his priestly garments. This indicates that Christ has an abundance of the anointing oil. God has poured the ointment upon Him. Through that anointing, Christ has received the ointment, and eventually He, the anointed One, became the anointing One. When He entered into us as the anointed One, He became the anointing One in us. Actually, the anointing that dwells in us is the anointed One becoming the anointing One and also the anointing.
God’s intention is to work Himself into us as our life and our everything to make us His counterpart for the expression of Himself. In order to accomplish this, it was necessary for God in Christ to pass through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. When He entered into resurrection, He became the compound, all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. This Spirit is actually Christos, the anointed One, becoming the life-giving One. When we believed in the Lord Jesus, we received Him into us. The One we received is the anointed One, who through death and resurrection has become the anointing One. Furthermore, this anointing One is the all-inclusive indwelling Spirit. As soon as we believed in Him, He as the Spirit entered our spirit. Now He is within our spirit to anoint us with the element of the Triune God. The more we are anointed with the Triune God, the more the element of the Triune God is transfused into our being. Through this anointing, the fibers of our being will be saturated with all that the processed Triune God is. This is the anointing, which is the reality of the entire New Testament.
Concerning the indwelling of the Divine Trinity (John 14:17, 23), we do not need anyone to teach us. By the anointing of the all-inclusive, compound Spirit, who is the composition of the Divine Trinity, we know and enjoy the Father, the Son, and the Spirit as our life and life supply.
The teaching of the anointing is not an outward teaching by words but an inward teaching by the anointing through our inner spiritual consciousness. This teaching by the anointing adds the divine elements of the Trinity, which are the elements of the anointing compound Spirit, into our inner being. It is like the repeated painting of some article: not only does the paint indicate a definite color, but the addition of repeated coats adds the elements of the paint to the thing being painted. It is in this way that the Triune God is transfused, infused, and added into all the inward parts of our being that our inner man may grow in the divine life with the divine elements.
This anointing is constantly moving and working within us. The purpose of this moving is to add the element of God into us. We understand God’s will and God’s leading not by an explicit word in letters but through the inward anointing. Today the inward moving and anointing of the Holy Spirit causes us to have more of the element of God. When God’s element increases, we understand more of what God wants, and we are clearer about God’s leading.
According to the context, the expression all things in 1 John 2:27 refers to all things concerning the person of Christ, which are related to the Divine Trinity. The teaching of the anointing concerning these things keeps us that we may abide in Him (the Divine Trinity), that is, in the Son and in the Father (v. 24).