Anointing

1 John 2:27 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.

One of the marks of a Christian is the connection to Jesus. Without Him and apart from Him, we have nothing, no connection to God, no reconciliation with each other. Life becomes empty, since this life is all there is.

But this is what permeates the thinking of this world. If something is measurable, it exists. If it isn’t, if we can’t hear it, see it, touch it, it doesn’t exist and therefore can be dismissed. All that is exists is what exists right now. No supernatural, no divine being, no heaven or hell, no hope beyond today. “Eat, drink, for tomorrow we die.”

This thinking is exactly what John confronts in this short letter. He starts the letter by proclaiming that the reality of what he is teaching has been heard, seen and touched. Jesus’ life, death and resurrection happened, and witnesses could be questioned. The essence of the Gospel is something tangible, touchable, experienceable.

This is the core of the Gospel. And if someone moves away from the historical reality of Jesus and the content of the Scriptures, they are moving away from the concrete and into the abstract. And if it can’t be proved, then it has no value either for this present life or the life to come.

And yet there were those during John’s time that were doing just that. They were moving away from the solid ground of the Gospel. They were adding to and subtracting from the Truth, inventing things that only pollute the Truth. And John warns his readers, and us, to keep away from these folks. They are walking away from the Faith.

We have heard about various cults that have moved away from historic Christianity. They started inside the tent of the Church, but then they moved away, leaving behind the anchor of Scriptures. They began to add to, and therefore became apart from the Gospel. Their other teachings, experiences, visions and writings were unprovable, disconnected from the heard, seen and touched, not to be trusted.

So we must remain in Jesus. We might differ in some minor theological, but we must keep the essential the essential. And Jesus in the essential.