And he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And in this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He gave to us. (3:24)
This tells us that we and God, God and we, mutually abide in one another and that this mutual abiding is a matter in the Spirit. God abides in us, and we abide in God. It is not a one-sided matter. Rather, it is two-sided, a kind of mutual abiding that is dependent upon the Spirit whom God gave to us. It is only in this Spirit that we can abide in God and God can abide in us.
In this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, that He has given to us of His Spirit. (4:13)
This is still a mutual abiding. This mutual abiding is altogether a story in spirit. When God abides in us, He abides in our spirit; when we abide in God, we abide in His Spirit.
The Spirit is He who testifies, because the Spirit is the reality. For there are three who testify, the Spirit and the water and the blood, and the three are unto the one thing. (5:6b-8)
The Spirit here refers mainly to the Spirit in the Lord’s incarnation. The water here refers mainly to the water of the Lord Jesus’ baptism. The blood here refers mainly to the blood shed through the Lord Jesus’ death. Therefore, in this portion John spoke of the Lord Jesus’ birth, baptism, and death because these three things testify that the Lord Jesus is the Son of God.
When the Lord Jesus was born in the flesh, the Holy Spirit came upon Mary so that the holy thing which she bore was called the Son of God. Then, when the Lord Jesus was baptized in the water, as He came up from the water, there was a voice saying, “This is My beloved Son.” Furthermore, when the Lord Jesus died on the cross and shed His blood, the centurion also testified and said, “Truly this was the Son of God.” Regardless of whether it was His birth, His baptism, or His death, they all testified that He is the Son of God. The birth, the baptism, and the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus were special. When the Lord Jesus was on the earth, these three great things testified that He is the Son of God.
This passage shows us that the indwelling Spirit is also the testifying Spirit. Therefore, the indwelling Spirit spoken of in this book functions in three aspects. First, He causes us to have a mutual abiding with God; we abide in God and God abides in us through this Spirit. Second, He testifies within us. Third, He anoints us inwardly. Simply speaking, the Spirit mentioned in this book is the anointing Spirit. This anointing Spirit causes us to have a mutual abiding with God and testifies in us for the Lord Jesus.
There is no mention of the Spirit in 2 and 3 John, so we will skip over them.
But you, beloved, building up yourselves upon your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. (Jude 20)
This verse tells us that the Spirit who is in us is a praying Spirit, so our prayer must also be in this indwelling Spirit.
In contrast, verse 19 says, “These are those who make divisions, soulish, having no spirit.” Those who have no spirit are those whose spirits are deadened and have become useless. They are soulish, living in the soul, and walking according to the soul, so their spirits cannot be seen in them or in their living and actions. This does not mean that they do not have a spirit within them. Rather, it means that they do not appear to be those who have a spirit. We, however, must pray in spirit. Today this praying Spirit is abiding in your spirit, so you must live in spirit. Thus, the Spirit in Jude is the praying Spirit.
You see that the Epistles of Paul, James, Peter, John, and Jude all speak about the Spirit. These were the only five men who wrote the Epistles, and they all spoke about this Spirit. By this you can realize how important this matter is. Even Jude, who wrote only one chapter, still emphatically mentioned that we need to pray in the Spirit and not be one who lives merely in the soul without using the spirit. May God truly enlighten us until we, too, consider this matter to be as important as they did.
Home | First | Prev | Next