First John 3:24 says, “He that keepeth his commandments abideth in him, and he in him” (ASV). “Abideth in him” means to abide in God, and “He in him” means that God abides in us. The remainder of this verse says, “And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit whom he hath given us.” There is no doctrine in this verse. Rather, it is altogether related to our experience of God. The experience of God can be so deep and subjective that we abide in God. It is not merely a matter of knowing God or of speaking about God; it is absolutely a matter of abiding in Him. This concept is unreligious. In no religion do you find a word saying that we can abide in God. To say that we know God, worship God, serve God, consecrate to God, sacrifice for God—all this is possible according to the human religious concept. Man does have the concept of serving God, worshipping God, doing things for God, being zealous for God, loving God, living in the presence of God, and speaking with God face to face. But, besides the New Testament revelation, there is no human word saying that we can abide in God. This concept is revolutionary. Man can abide in the divine Being, the creature can abide in the Creator and, in turn, the Creator can abide in the creature. It is not merely that the Creator loves us and takes care of us. This concept can be found in the realm of human, religious thought. But whoever thought that we fallen human beings could abide in God and that God could abide in us? This is a great matter. How do we know that we abide in Him and that He abides in us? This verse says that we know it by the Spirit whom He has given us. Notice that it does not say, “He will give us,” but, “He has given us.”
Let us now turn to 1 John 2:23. This verse says, “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: but he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.” According to this verse, if you reject the Son, you do not have the Father. If the Father and the Son are not one, then why would we not have the Father if we reject the Son? This also is not a doctrine but something realized by experience. This verse does not say, “If you reject the Son, the Son is gone.” Why does it not say this? Because the Son brings us the Father, just as the child brings us God. Therefore, when you reject the Son, you lose the Father. This verse also says, “He that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.” This is a strong proof that the Son is the Father. Otherwise, why do you have the Father by acknowledging the Son? The Son’s being the Son is for us to experience the Father and to gain Him for our enjoyment.
First John 2:20 says that we have an anointing from the Holy One, and 1 John 2:27 says, “The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you.” The anointing is not a thing; it is an action. We know that this anointing is something living and acting because it teaches us. From all these verses in 1 John, we see three main things: that we abide in God and that God abides in us; that if we acknowledge the Son we have the Father; and that there is an action called the anointing abiding in us to teach us. The ointment is moving, acting, and doing things within us. We not only have the ointment; we also have the anointing.
Unless we have experience, it is difficult to know the Bible. Why does the First Epistle of John, which speaks of our abiding in God and God’s abiding in us, use the word anointing in chapter two? The Spirit’s intention was certainly to refer us to the ointment mentioned in the Old Testament. In order to understand the writings of John, you must refer to the Old Testament. For example, John 1:29 speaks of the Lamb of God. In order to understand this, you should not go to Webster’s dictionary, but to the Old Testament, which is the proper lexicon to use in understanding the terms found in the New Testament, especially those used by John. In his first Epistle he employs the word “anointing.” The Old Testament definition of this term is in Exodus chapter thirty.