EMB BLOG
FAITH IS THE VICTORY BY PROFESSOR E M BLAIKLOCK MA LITT D
THE CHRISTIAN'S ANOINTING :
Verses 20-23 should be considered carefully, This packed and crowded chapter gives us much to think about, and the importance of these closing verses may be missed. The passage should not be easily dismissed. It is Pauline in the concentration of its doctrine,
From the serious subject of his earlier discussion John turns with an expression of confidence in his readers, "But you," he says, "need not fear. You are blessed and enlightened by God's Holy Spirit, enlightened not after the fashion of our high minded heretics, but by the very Spirit of the Lord." Notice that we have replaced "and" by "but". Greek very frequently failed to distinguish between the copula and the adversative, and in translating it is often necessary to mark the fact. A striking example is the injunction: "Be angry and sin not," where the obvious meaning is: "Be angry, but sin not." That is: "Let your anger never be other than righteous anger."
Note, too, that "anointing" is "chrisma." The assonance between this noun and its divine derivative "Christ" would be striking to a Greek reader. John says: "True, there are many antichrists, but there are also many who know that anointing which gave Christ Himself His title." Anointing, in the Old Testament, was a rite of consecration. The Hebrew "Messiah" and its Greek translation "Christ," meaning as they do "the Anointed," underline the priestly function of the Lord.
Along with their Lord, Christians share this privilege. "It is God who guarantees us together with you in Christ," writes Paul, "and who anointed us; He also sealed us and gave us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." (Il Cor. 1: 21), In these verses Paul makes a similar, almost punning, play on 'Christos' and 'chrisas,' as John does on 'chrisma' and 'Christos.' A benediction of the Holy Spirit's presence to strengthen and sanctify is the simplest and humblest Christian's privilege.
Note in this connexion another important detail in this difficult passage. In both v. 20 and v. 27, where the expression occurs again, the pronoun 'you' is emphatic. "But you have
an anointing・・・
" says the first text. "You too have an anointing...” says the second. Why this insistence? It
seems clear that the Gnostics, whose dangerous teaching is never far from John's anxious thought in this Epistle, claimed, and perhaps practised, a special 'anointing.’
A Gnostic document is extant which says, in the obscure and mystic language the heretics often affected: "We alone of all men are Christians, who complete the mystery at the third portal, and are anointed there with speechless anointing." Probably the sectaries had adopted some of the rituals of the pagan
'mystery-religions,' and were in the habit of exalting their ritual over the simplicities of John's little flock. "Fear not, says the Apostle, "your anointing is real."
"Who is the liar?" asks the Apostle abruptly. Surely th one who tells the lie of all lies, who distinguishes, like Cerin thus, between Jesus and Christ, and thereby denies the Incarnation, denying the Father along with His Son. (Study Matthew II: 27; John 5: 23; John 14: 6; and John 15: 23). The central truth of John’s Gospel, to which he here makes reference, was the unity of Father and Son. Only through the Son can the Father be known (John 1: 18), and to deny God's revelation in His Sor is to shatter the whole of Christian truth, and to stand in fundamental opposition to the whole doctrine of the Atonement. He who does this is in very truth "the Antichrist." There are still those who insist on the Fatherhood of God an yet deny the Deity of Christ. Whatever such a religion may be called, it is not Christianity, and these two verses condem its heresy in comprehensive terms. "Everyone who denies the Son loses all claim on the Father, and (continuing with th words found in many important manuscripts) the one who confesses the Son has the Father also."