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1 John 2:24–25
“Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.”
Denying that Jesus is the Christ is tantamount to denying the Father as well (1 John 2:22–23). This is a grievous error, and John is keen to press on his readers the means by which they are to stand firm against this and every other false teaching. In today’s passage, he indicates that the truth that has been received must continually dwell within his readers.
“Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you,” John writes (v. 24). The phrase “from the beginning” refers here not to the opening of creation but to the inception of Christian instruction in the Ephesian church. From the time that the gospel was first preached among them, the Apostles had set forth the same truths that John now defends. The eternal Son became flesh. He died and rose for sinners. Those who trust in Him have fellowship with the Father through Him. This original Apostolic deposit is what the Ephesian believers had received, and it is what John charges them to retain.
The exhortation to “let it abide” presses two duties on the readers. First, they must hold fast to the original Apostolic teaching against any pressure to revise it. Second, they must allow this teaching to take root in them, shaping their thoughts, affections, and actions. The truth is preserved not by mere mental affirmation but by its being received deeply into the soul, where it can do its sanctifying work.
The promise that John attaches to this abiding is striking: “If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father” (v. 24). Note the connection. The believer’s abiding in the Father and the Son is bound up with the abiding of the Apostolic teaching in the believer. There is no shortcut to fellowship with God that bypasses the truth that He has revealed about Himself. Those who hold fast to the gospel hold fast to Christ; those who let go of the gospel inevitably let go of Him.
Verse 25 names what is at stake: “And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.” The truth that abides in the faithful is no minor doctrine but the very means by which the promise of eternal life is laid hold of. To trifle with the Apostolic gospel is therefore to trifle with eternal life itself. To guard it carefully, by contrast, is to guard the entrance to glory. The Ephesian Christians could not afford to be passive in the face of false teaching, and neither can we.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
The truth that saves us is the same truth that keeps us. As we read Scripture, sit under faithful preaching, and meditate on what we have heard from the beginning, we are not merely informing our minds but anchoring our souls. Let us treasure the Apostolic gospel and let it dwell in us richly today.
For further study
- Deuteronomy 6:6–9
- Psalm 119:11
- Colossians 3:16–17
- 2 Timothy 1:13–14
The bible in a year
- Isaiah 41–42
- Colossians 3:18–4:18