2 John: The Doctrine of The Christ
Everyone transgressing and one not abiding in the doctrine of the Christ, does not have God. The one remaining in the doctrine, this one has also the Father and the Son.
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The One Abiding in Him
1 John 3:6 Every, the one abiding, in Him does not sin. Every, the one sinning, has not seen Him with discernment nor experientially knows Him.
We do not see the change in any of our English translations with the word “sin” in this passage. ‘Sin” is used twice, once as a verb, which describes an action and once as a participle which describes a characteristic. The KJV and NAS us the same word “sin” for both forms, which actually hides the meaning from the reader. The ESV attempts to distinguish the words from the NAS and KVJ, but ends up making the same mistake. The forms of the word “sin” are very important here. A participle is a verbal noun which uses an action to describe a person or characterize them as someone who does the action stated by the verbal portion. Its focus is not on the action of the verb directly. Whereas, a verb simply looks at the action.
We have two participles that are extremely important to our understanding of this passage. First is “the one abiding”. This is one who is characterized as feeling as ease in Him (Christ). Not just simply abiding for a small period of time, off and on, but not really feeling at ease; rather, one who has settled down and feels at ease with who he or she is in Christ. In the translation above I followed the Original Greek, which makes for a bit of hard English, but also helps to bring out the truth of the passage. “Every, the one abiding” (participle), is not referring directly to the action but to the characteristic of the individual who is abiding. “every” is added in the Greek […]
The Christian Life
The Christian Life
In Christ
The Christian is placed into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit when he or she believed the Gospel for salvation1. The Christ is a new kind of creation by God that is made up of both Jew and Gentile, in which Christ is the Head and the Church is the Body2. There are no physical or racial distinctions in the Christ3. In Christ, the Christian is complete, lacking nothing4.
Christ in the Christian
The Christian has eternal life because Christ is now living in that Christian5. This also provided the means by which a Christian can live out the life of Christ here on earth.
Sonship
The Holy Spirit places all believers of the Dispensation of Grace as mature sons, whether male or female, and always will be mature sons.6 Sonship is a place of privilege in which the believer is not under any quality of law7.
Priesthood of the Believer
All Christians are placed as priests when they believe and therefore are able to present spiritual sacrifices unto God when they are spiritual 8.
Abiding
Abiding is an essential part of the Christian life. The Christian is only able to manifest the life of God and live out the Christian life when he is abiding (feeling at ease) in his position in Christ9.
The Enemies of the Saints
The Christian has three spiritual enemies that are active today: Satan […]
Experiencing the Holy Spirit – Teaching
Another aspect of experiencing the Holy Spirit is through how He teaches us.
And you, the anointing that you received from Him abides in you and you do not have need in order that someone should teach you, but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things and is true and is not a lie, even just as He teaches you abide in Him. – 1 John 2:27
Abiding is a term that is used to describe how we occupy a space and is typically used of a place you are very comfortable in. Abiding in Christ involves feeling at ease with who we are in Christ, which encompasses every aspect of our salvation and the new relationship we now have with God.
In John 15, Jesus revealed the new type of relationship we, those of the church, would have with Him and God by using a vine and branches to explain how we would be in Him and He would be in us and this relationship requires us to rely on Him for all good fruit that we produce, or rather that is produces in us.
I am the vine and My Father is the vinedresser – John 15:1
I am the vine and you are the branches, the one abiding in me, and I in him, this one bears much fruit because apart from Me you are not able to do anything – John 15:5
John is not saying that we do not need someone to teach us, as Christ gave gives to the Church for the purpose of teaching us and bringing us into a oneness of faith so that we are not tossed around by every teaching of men using […]
Faith
Scripture defines faith (πίστις) as the substance of that which is hoped for, the conviction of accomplished deeds not seen in Hebrews 11:1. It is therefore not an attitude or belief that is dictated by probability, that is wishful thinking based upon a desire, want, or need; rather, it is a conviction based upon a promise.
Substance is referring to the underlying essence by which something exists. Christ is the exact image of God in the flesh. Through His life the fundamental nature of God was made visible to humans, Hebrews 1:3.
Conviction is the act of presenting evidence to persuade a person’s mind to believe in the truth. This evidence is established upon accomplished deeds that are not seen. We see this demonstrated in the actions of God when He determined to show the heirs of promise the immutability of His determination by giving two immutable facts, it is impossible for God to lie and making an oath based upon His word, Hebrews 6:13-18. The conviction of faith is therefore based upon the facts related to accomplished deeds that God has done.
Therefore, faith is the essence of that which is hoped for, and by the conviction based upon the facts of the promise that hope is based upon, the individual expressing belief will act according to their confidence in the person making the promise.
Many times in Scripture Jesus called out the faith of those around Him, especially of those who would not normally have faith. When a Centurion, a Gentile, asked Jesus to heal his servant, he expressed faith in the fact that Christ is the Messiah promised to the Jews by only asking that Jesus speaks the words, for one who is of authority only […]