Three Questions Concerning Your Salvation!

1 John 2:24-29

Are you abiding in the promise?

Vs. 24

As for you, is used as a comparison of those John was speaking of…the antichrists.

You is placed in the forward position giving it greater importance in the comparison.

Might explain Greek word order.

Heard from the beginning is directly related to eternal life in Vs. 25 and the new commandment in Vs. 7

But it was a new commandment (cf. 1 John 2:7–8; 3:11; 2 John 5) in the sense that it presented a higher standard of love—one based on the example of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

John F. MacArthur

John 14:23 ESV

Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

given the context he is referring to the Gospel along with the belief that Jesus is both Man and God which is in opposition to the teaching of the antichrists.

If you believe in the Gospel what you like, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.

Saint Augustine of Hippo

If what your heard from the beginning abides in you…or if you remain in this teaching or if the the Word of God abides in you…Then you are one with the Father and the Son.

Vs. 25

The promise of eternal life

John 3:15–16 NASB95

so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

John 4:10 NASB95

Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

John 6:40 NASB95

“For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”

(See also: Eternal Life; Eternity; Heaven; Hell; Judgement)

Let it be considered that if our lives be not a journey to heaven they will be a journey to hell.

Jonathan Edwards (American Evangelical Preacher)

Are you listening to the Holy Spirit?

Vs. 26

Reference back to the deceiving antichrists

2 John 7 NASB95

For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.

1, 2, 3 John (2) Beware of the Antichrists (2:18–28)

The deceptive characteristics of the ones that John has previously called antichrists and liars again come clearly into view in this verse. They are not content to rush into error by themselves. Their goal is to bring as many as they can along with them.

Vs. 27

As for you is again in the forward position

reminding followers of Jesus are distinct from those who have left.

The anointing

The filling of the Holy Spirit brings a sharp separation between the believer and the world.

A. W. Tozer

John 14:6 NASB95

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

John 14:26 NASB95

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

1 Corinthians 2:12 NASB95

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,

1 Thessalonians 4:9 NASB95

Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another;

and is true and is not a lie!

John 14:17 NASB95

that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

Just as it has taught you, you abide in Him!

This is a command of what the Holy Spirit teaches us.

Proper understanding of the Scriptures comes only through the Holy Spirit.

Martin Luther (Founder of the German Reformation)

Are you walking in righteousness?

Holiness relates to God’s separateness; righteousness, to His justice. Righteousness has to do with law, morality, and justice.

Charles C. Ryrie

Vs. 28

Abide

1, 2, 3 John (1) Be Confident and Ready for His Coming (2:28–3:3)

He demands a continual, deepening relationship with Christ as a direct duty of their status as “dear children.”

φανερόω phaneroō (fo-nay-ra-ow) - Making oneself manifest or come into being.

He appears is only used in reference to Jesus Christ

John uses this word to refer to

Christ’s Incarnation

The words and works of Jesus

His post resurrection appearances

and His second coming

1, 2, 3 John (1) Be Confident and Ready for His Coming (2:28–3:3)

This observation is vital to John’s arguments against those who want to deny the physical reality of Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. John emphasizes that the Son of God will return physically and literally (just as he did the first time). The context also acknowledges the involvement of the Father in this grand event. God the Father again sends the Son, and his return will be a literal, physical second coming.

have confidence…

1, 2, 3 John (1) Be Confident and Ready for His Coming (2:28–3:3)

The word “confidence” (parrēsian) connotes the absence of fear when speaking.317 It carries the idea of boldness, openness, freedom, assurance, and courage. John uses the word four times in his epistle.

1, 2, 3 John (1) Be Confident and Ready for His Coming (2:28–3:3)

John takes a more reassuring approach. He challenges them to continue faithfully in their present course. Motivation and exhortation are brought together. Admonition comes in the form of encouragement.

Do not be afraid of them…just continue to remain faithful to what you have been taught…not just by John but by the Holy Spirit directly

Ephesians 3:12 NASB95

in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.

A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. αἰσχύνω

to experience shame, be put to shame, be disgraced

The first reason why we should not be ashamed of the gospel is the meaning of the word gospel itself. It means “good news,” and no rational person should be ashamed of a desirable proclamation.

James Montgomery Boice

Mark 8:38 NASB95

“For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

Romans 1:16 NASB95

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

at His coming or in His presence.

He that is ashamed to speak the truth has need to be ashamed of himself. The Very Bold Prophecy, Volume 32, Sermon #1919 - Isaiah 65:1

Charles Spurgeon

Vs. 29

John 7:18 NASB95

“He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

John Stott said,

1, 2, 3 John (1) Be Confident and Ready for His Coming (2:28–3:3)

“A person’s righteousness is thus the evidence of his new birth, not the cause or condition of it.”

1, 2, 3 John (1) Be Confident and Ready for His Coming (2:28–3:3)

it is a continual, life-characterizing righteousness that comes from having a personal, saving knowledge of him who is absolutely righteous

1, 2, 3 John (1) Be Confident and Ready for His Coming (2:28–3:3)

he speaks first of doing what is right, which is the direct result of spiritual birth. His point is simply this: if a person does what is right, this is a sure sign of a new birth. This particular order, therefore, offers assurance to the child of God. For the child of God, faith precedes behavior, but right behavior is the natural result of proper belief

John 1:13 NASB95

who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 3:3 NASB95

Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

3 John 11 NASB95

Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God.

The first part is this: while it shows God’s righteousness, that is, the righteousness alone acceptable to God, it warns, informs, convicts, and lastly condemns, every man of his own unrighteousness.

John Calvin (French Reformer)