“Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father. And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.” 1 John 2:24-26 (Read v. 18-29)
False teachers and erring churches and organizations are all around us in this world that would lead us to reject all or parts of the Bible, God’s unerring Word, and weaken or destroy our faith in Christ Jesus.
Many would lead us to believe that Jesus is not the LORD God in human flesh come into this world to redeem fallen mankind. They deny the deity or sometimes the humanity of Christ and cast doubt upon the sufficiency of His atoning sacrifice on the cross for the sins of all.
St. Paul wrote and encouraged Timothy, in the face of persecution and suffering, and with false teachers at work to turn people away from Christ and the true doctrine, to continue in that doctrine which he had learned from the Holy Scriptures.
He wrote in 2 Timothy 3:13-17: “But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”
So also the Apostle John writes to his hearers: “Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father. And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.”
John urged his hearers to continue in that truth they were taught by him and by the other apostles, in the beginning. They were to let what they heard, in the beginning, remain in them. They were not to turn aside and accept the doctrines of those who denied the deity or the humanity of Christ Jesus but to hold fast to the truth that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son” (John 3:16), born of the Virgin Mary and made true man, that He might take our place under the law and fulfill all righteousness for us and that He might bear on the cross the just condemnation for our sins and the sins of the whole world and rise again on the third day. Cf. Gal. 4:4-5.
John urged his hearers to hear God’s Word, confess their sins and hold fast in faith to Him whose blood cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7-9). He urged them to continue to trust in Christ Jesus, who shed His blood on the cross as the propitiating sacrifice for our sins and for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:1-2).
And, indeed, if they continued in the truth of God’s Word, taught and revealed to them by the Holy Spirit through the Scriptures, if they held fast in faith to Christ Jesus, they would also be abiding in the Father. Apart from Jesus, no one can know the Father or come to Him. In Jesus, we also have and abide in fellowship with the Father. Cf. 1 John 1:5ff.
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him” (John 14:6-7).
And what has God promised to all who trust in the Son? Life everlasting!
Again, Jesus said: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24); and “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life … He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:16,18).
And so, in the face of false doctrine and erring beliefs, ridicule and persecution, remember the truths you learned from the Holy Scriptures and continue to trust and believe them. God’s Word is “a lamp unto [our] feet, and a light unto [our] path” (Psalm 119:105).
Hold fast to the Christ Jesus of the Bible and take comfort in His atoning sacrifice and the forgiveness He has won for you. Abide in Him, for God has promised us eternal life in Jesus’ name!
John wrote toward the close of this letter: “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1 John 5:11-12).
The Apostle Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, also testified, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
O Comforter and Anointing from above, keep us in the true faith, that truth we learned from the Holy Scriptures, that we may continue to trust in the Son, Jesus Christ, and His blood shed for us on the cross, unto life everlasting. Amen.
[Scripture is quoted from the King James Version of the Bible.]