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In this message we will continue to consider the aspects of Christ as our abiding place.
First John 2:28 says, “Now, little children, abide in Him, so that if He is manifested, we may have boldness and not be put to shame from Him at His coming.” Here the pronoun He refers definitely to Christ the Son, who is coming. This, with the preceding clause abide in Him, which is a repetition of the clause in verse 27 involving the Trinity, indicates that the Son is the embodiment of the Triune God, inseparable from the Father or the Spirit.
Verse 28 indicates that some believers, those who do not abide in the Lord (that is, remain in the fellowship of the divine life according to pure faith in Christ’s person) but are led astray by the heretical teachings concerning Christ (v. 26), will be punished by being put to shame from Him, from His glorious parousia. When the Lord comes back, we must be found abiding in Him; otherwise, we will be put to shame. If we do not abide in the Triune God, continually living the divine life, then at the Lord’s coming back we will suffer shame, which will be a kind of discipline exercised upon us. Then we will be kept away from His glory.
If we abide in Christ and bear much fruit by His life to glorify God, when He is manifested, we will boldly meet Him and not be put to shame from His glorious presence (cf. Matt. 25:30). If we abide in the Lord and have fellowship with Him, we spontaneously walk before the Lord and live in His will. This will cause us to have boldness and not be put to shame at the Lord’s coming. Otherwise, when we see Him, we will be in fear and become separated from His presence. Such danger should warn us to live in the fellowship of the Lord’s life.
If we do not abide in the Lord according to the anointing, we will “be put to shame from Him at His coming” (1 John 2:28). To feel shameful is one thing; to be put to shame is another. This verse does not say that we will feel shameful, but that we will “be put to shame.” Notice that, according to the Greek, it does not say “before Him” but “from Him.” The Greek preposition here is apo, which means “away from.” If we abide in the Lord according to the anointing, when He appears, we will have confidence, assurance, boldness, and peace and not be put away from Him. Literally, the Greek words translated “at His coming” mean “in His presence.” The Greek word for “presence” is parousia, which includes the meaning of coming. We may have His coming and yet not be in His presence. The Lord Jesus will come, but will we be worthy to be in His presence? If we live in a worldly way, loving the world and not giving the Lord the first place, how can we be brought into His presence when He comes? We must abide in the Lord according to the inward anointing so that we may have confidence, boldness, and assurance before Him in His presence at His appearing and not be put to shame away from Him.
At His appearing, the Lord will deal with His believers. To be put to shame away from Him must mean to be put to the place of shame outside His presence. A believer who is put to shame away from Him is not lost. He is still a saved person, but he must suffer being put to shame, which will be a dealing and a discipline for him. It will be the chastisement exercised by the sovereign Lord over His defeated believers. This matter is quite clear and is very serious.
Lot’s wife was saved from destruction, but she became a pillar of salt (Gen. 19:15-17, 26; Luke 17:32). In the form of powder, salt is useful. But when salt becomes a block, it is useless. That Lot’s wife became a pillar of salt meant that she had lost her usefulness in the hand of God and had become a sign of shame. Today Christianity helps people only to take care of the matter of salvation or perdition. But the Bible reveals that besides the matter of salvation or perdition, there is the matter of glory or shame. Lot’s wife was not lost; she was saved from destruction. Eventually, however, she became a shame. Hence, the Lord said in Luke 17:32, “Remember Lot’s wife,” warning us that, although we are saved, at the Lord’s coming back we might possibly suffer shame like Lot’s wife. Although we are saved, we may become ashamed at the Lord’s coming back (1 John 2:28).
First John 3:5 says, “You know that He was manifested that He might take away sins; and sin is not in Him.” The Greek word rendered “take” in verse 5 is the same Greek word as in John 1:29, where we are told that Christ as the Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world, which came into the world through Adam (Rom. 5:12). In 1 John 3:5 He takes away sins, which are committed by all men. John 1 deals with the totality of sin, including the sinful nature and sinful deeds. First John 3 deals only with the fruits of sin, that is, the sins committed in man’s daily life. Both are taken away by Christ.
In that One who takes away both sin (the sinful nature) and sins (sinful deeds), sin is not. Hence, He did not know sin (2 Cor. 5:21), He committed no sin (1 Pet. 2:22), and He was without sin (Heb. 4:15). This qualified Him to take away both the indwelling sin and the sins committed in man’s daily life. We do not sin habitually when we abide in Him, who was manifested to take away sins and undo, destroy, the works of the devil.
In 1 John 3:6 John continues, “Everyone who abides in Him does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen Him or known Him.” The expression abides in Him refers to remaining in the fellowship of the divine life and walking in the divine light (1:2-3, 6-7). The words does not sin in the same verse mean “does not sin habitually.” This too is a condition of the life that abides in the Lord. It does not mean that the children of God do not commit sin at all; they may commit sin occasionally. It means that the regenerated believers who have the divine life and live by it do not practice sin. Their character and habit are not to sin but to abide in the Lord. Abiding in the Lord is a believer’s living; sinning is a sinner’s life.
In 1 John 3:6, John says that everyone who practices sin, living a sinful life, has not seen Him or known Him. Not to have seen or known the Lord is not to have received any vision of Him or to have any realization of Him. This is the condition of an unbeliever. But if we have experienced the Lord, then we have seen Him and known Him. To see and know the Lord is to experience Him.
In verse 7 John says, “Little children, let no one lead you astray; he who practices righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous.” To practice righteousness is to live a righteous life, to live rightly under the principle of God’s ruling. This, according to verse 8, means not to practice sin and, according to verse 4, not to practice lawlessness.
According to the context, righteous here equals pure in verse 3. To be righteous is to be pure, without any stain of sin, lawlessness, and unrighteousness, even as Christ is pure. The emphasis of the apostle John is that as long as we are children of God having the divine life and the divine nature, we will habitually live a life of righteousness.
In verse 8 John goes on to say, “He who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” This verse indicates that practices sin (v. 4) and sins in this book are synonymous, denoting to live in sin, to commit sin habitually. Such a life is of the devil, whose life is one of sin and who sins habitually from the beginning. Sin is his nature, and sinning is his character. The devil has sinned from the beginning, that is, from the time when the devil began to rebel against God, attempting to overthrow God’s rule.
In this verse John says that the Son of God was manifested for the purpose of undoing the works of the devil. The Greek word translated “for this” literally means “unto this,” that is, “to this end,” or “for this purpose.” The devil has sinned continually from ancient times and begets sinners to practice sin with him. Hence, for this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might undo and destroy the sinful deeds of the devil, that is, condemn, through His death on the cross in the flesh (Rom. 8:3), sin initiated by him, the evil one; destroy the power of sin, the sinful nature of the devil (Heb. 2:14); and take away both sin and sins. On the cross Christ condemned sin, took away sin and sins, and destroyed the power of the devil.
In 1 John 2:5 we are told that “whoever keeps His word, truly in this one the love of God has been perfected. In this we know that we are in Him.” Here word is synonymous with commandments in verses 3 and 4. Word here comprises all the commandments. Commandments emphasizes injunction; word implies spirit and life as a supply to us (John 6:63).
The word in verse 5 is the totality, the aggregate, of all the commandments. No matter how many commandments there may be, as a whole these commandments are the word of the Lord. Hence, John speaks of keeping His word. By this he means keeping the word spoken either by the Lord Himself directly or spoken through the apostles.
In verse 5 the expression in Him means in the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. v. 1). This is a strong expression, stressing that we are one with the Lord. Since we are one with the Lord, who is God, the loving essence of God becomes ours. It is supplied to us by the Lord’s word of life for our walk of love that we may enjoy the fellowship of the divine life and abide in the divine light (v. 10).
If we read the context of these verses, we will realize that it is an important matter to have a sign indicating that we are in the Lord. How can we prove that we are in the Triune God? The first sign that we are truly in Him is that we know God experientially in our daily life.
Because we know our God in this way, we cannot speak certain things, do certain things, or go certain places. Others may even defame us and falsely accuse us. However, because we know God subjectively, often we will not have any desire to vindicate ourselves or argue in our own defense. No matter what others may say, we know that we have the divine life. We have God within us as our life and nature. Eventually this indwelling One will be expressed in our character and conduct. It is in this way that we know God experientially, and this knowing is a strong sign that we are in Him and one with Him.
In our behavior and way of speaking, we should bear a sign that we are in God. We should not talk with others the same way that unbelievers do. We all should have the testimony in our daily life that we are in God. We bear a sign that we are in God, even though at some times we are weak and fail Him. The sign that in our daily walk we are in God is an indication that we know the Lord experientially. Because we know Him experientially, spontaneously we keep His commandments.
To be in the Lord Jesus Christ is to be one with Him organically. It is not to be one with Him merely in a doctrinal way. When we are organically one with the Lord, He is our life and even becomes our nature. Every kind of life has its particular nature. With the nature of the divine life there is a certain taste. Because we have the Lord as our life and because we enjoy His nature, we also have the taste that comes with the divine nature, and we simply cannot do certain things. However, anyone who does not have the divine nature cannot have the divine taste.
In verse 6 John goes on to say, “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk even as He walked.” To be in Christ is the beginning of the Christian life. Our being put in Christ was God’s doing once for all (1 Cor. 1:30). To abide in Christ is the continuation of the Christian life. This is our responsibility in our daily walk, a walk that is a copy of Christ’s walk on earth. To abide in Christ, on the one hand, we must be according to the teaching of the anointing of the Holy Spirit inwardly, and on the other hand, we must walk as the Lord walked outwardly.
Because God has put us in Christ once for all, we now must bear the responsibility to abide in Him. To abide in Him is actually to have fellowship with Him. On the negative side, this requires that we deal with our sins; on the positive side, this requires that we keep His word.
First John 3:24 says, “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.” This verse is the conclusion of this section, which begins in 2:28, on our abiding in the Lord according to the teaching of the divine anointing, as unfolded in the preceding section (vv. 20-27). This section reveals that abiding in the Lord is the living of the children of God by His eternal life as the divine seed (3:15, 9), which grows in the practicing of the righteousness of their begetting God (2:29; 3:7, 10) and the love of their begetting Father (vv. 10-11, 14-23). Such an abiding and its bases — the divine birth and the divine life as the divine seed — are mysterious yet real in the Spirit.
To keep His commandments is to live a life according to the divine reality. This is what it means to keep the Lord’s commandments according to this Epistle. This means that keeping His commandments is not the keeping of the Mosaic law. To keep the commandments of the Lord is to have a life according to the divine reality.
If we keep the Lord’s commandments by living in the divine reality, we will abide in Him, and He in us. We abide in the Lord; then He abides in us. Our abiding in Him is a condition for His abiding in us (John 15:4). We enjoy His abiding in us by our abiding in Him.
God is the One who gave the commandments. These commandments are that we must believe in His Son and that we must love one another. We need to have the faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and we need to have the love to love all the brothers. This is what it means to abide in God. This is a living that includes the main things of our Christian life. As long as we believe in Christ and love all other Christians as our brothers, we are abiding in God and are complete. We abide in God because we are keeping His commandments, which charge us to believe in His Son and to love all the brothers of His Son. This is also to have faith and love.
The Spirit, that is, the all-inclusive, compound life-giving Spirit, is the vital and crucial factor of abiding in the Lord. It is by this Spirit that we are born of God, we receive the divine life as the divine seed in us, we have the fellowship of the divine life, we are anointed with the Triune God, and we abide in the Lord. This wonderful Spirit is given to us as the promised blessing of the New Testament (Gal. 3:14); He is given without measure by the Christ who is above all, who inherits all, and who is to be increased universally (John 3:31-35). This Spirit and the eternal life (1 John 3:15) are the basic elements by which we live the life that abides in the Lord continuously. Hence, it is by this Spirit, who witnesses assuringly with our spirit, that we are the children of God (Rom. 8:16) and that we know that the Lord of all abides in us (1 John 4:13). It is through this Spirit that we are joined to the Lord as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). And it is by this Spirit that we enjoy the riches of the Triune God (2 Cor. 13:14).
We abide in God by the Spirit of God (1 John 3:24b). Without the Spirit of God, there is no connection between God and us. The linking, the connection, between us and God, the Father, the Son, the Lord, and Christ, is the Spirit. This “linking Spirit” is in our spirit. If we would enjoy a life of abiding in God, we must exercise our spirit, turn to our spirit, touch our spirit, and use our spirit. Then we will touch the linking Spirit. This is 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.
In 1 John 4:13, John says, “In this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, that He has given to us of His Spirit.” In that God has given to us of His Spirit, we know that we abide in Him and He in us. The Spirit, whom God has given to dwell in us (James 4:5; Rom. 8:9, 11), is the witness in our spirit (v. 16), witnessing that we dwell in God and God in us. The abiding Spirit, that is, the indwelling Spirit, is the element and sphere of the mutual abiding, the mutual indwelling, of us and God. By Him we are assured that we and God are one, that we abide in each other, indwelling each other mutually. This is evidenced by our living, a living in which we love one another habitually with His love (1 John 4:12).
In verse 13 John indicates that we may know that we abide in Him. To abide in God is to dwell in Him, to remain in our fellowship with Him, that we may experience and enjoy His abiding in us. This is to practice our oneness with God according to the divine anointing (2:27) by living a life that practices His righteousness and His love. It is all carried out by the operation of the all-inclusive compound Spirit, who dwells in our spirit and who is the basic element of the divine anointing.
John 15 says that the Lord is the true vine and that the believers are the branches. As such, the believers need to abide in the vine. Because of the way this is said, it may appear that this is an illustration. But 1 John 4:13 is definitely a fact: “In this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, that He has given to us of His Spirit.” The Spirit given by God who abides in us is the witness in our spirit, testifying that we abide in God and that God abides in us. Here man is mingled with God. This is the principle of incarnation. In the universe there is at least One among all of God’s creation, Jesus of Nazareth, who is a product of the two natures of God and man. He is God, yet He is also man. He is the God-man. God is not only with Him but also mingled with Him. They share the same life, the same living, the same move, and the same work. Thus, in heaven or on earth, the Lord Jesus walks and works together with God. This oneness is not only one of being alongside each other but one of being mingled with each other.
We can abide in Christ, making Him our dwelling place. He can abide in us, making us His abode. Likewise, the mutual abiding of Christ with the believers is a matter of mingling. When we abide in Christ and let Him abide in us, we are mingled together. This is possible because He is the Spirit and because we have a spirit. These two spirits are joined in one (1 Cor. 6:17). We are mingled with Christ because He is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17) and we have a spirit. One day these two spirits were blended to become the mingled spirit. Consequently, we were mingled with Christ.
To abide is to remain in the mingled spirit. Within us is our spirit mingled with the divine Spirit. This part of us must become our home. Both Christ and we live here. We must remain in our mingled spirit, making it our home. As long as He and we both have our dwelling place in this mingled spirit, we spontaneously live Christ and enjoy the fellowship of life, the flowing of the divine life.
To live Christ is the issue of our abiding in Him and His abiding in us. He and we both make home in the same place, the mingled spirit. He and we are mingled as one spirit. This mingled spirit is our joint abode. This is what makes us joyful, living, and uplifted. We are in the mingled spirit, and this is our home.
In 1 John 4:13, John also says that God “has given to us of His Spirit.” Here the Greek word translated “of” means “out of.” God has given us out of His Spirit. This closely resembles, and almost repeats, the word in 3:24, which proves that this does not mean that God has given us something of His Spirit, such as the various gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:4, but that He has given the Spirit Himself as the all-inclusive gift (Acts 2:38). Out of His Spirit is an expression that implies that the Spirit of God, whom God has given to us, is bountiful and without measure (Phil. 1:19; John 3:34). By such a bountiful, immeasurable Spirit we know with full assurance that we and God are one and that we abide in each other.
God has given us something of the Spirit, which indicates that all the riches of Christ are now the content of the Spirit. Eventually, what God has given us is the complete, consummated, all-inclusive, compound, life-giving, indwelling Spirit. Our God, the Father, has given us of this all-inclusive Spirit, who is the bountiful supply of Jesus Christ, the Son.
