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THE DOCTRINE ABOUT ABIDING

Text: 1 John 2:27

THE DOCTRINE ABOUT ABIDING

The Apostle John in his gospel recorded a teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ about abiding. Here is a summary.

1. Abiding in the Lord Jesus John 15:4-5

2. Abide in the word of the Lord Jesus John 15:7

3. Abide in His love John 15:9

ANOTHER ASPECT OF ABIDING

John went on, and correctly so, to add another aspect to the doctrine of abiding.

“As it has taught you, you will abide in Him.”
1 John 2:27c

1. Understanding the particle “it”

a) This particle is a reference to “the anointing”.

b) “The anointing” is a grammatical neuter noun.

c) The translators of NKJV must have sought to be consistent with the grammatical construction.

2. Another way of translating the text

a) “As it has taught you”.

b) However, even if we use the “masculine gender” (He) it does not follow that The Holy Spirit is “male”.

c) Grammatical gender is just a literary observation of the nouns.

d) There are three grammatical genders (Masculine, Feminine, and Neuter).

e) The use of the particle “it” does not affect the Person of the Holy Spirit in any way.

3. “You will abide in Him”

a) The translation must be carefully understood.

b) At first glance it appears that the Future Tense is involved.

c) A more literal translation is – “You are abiding in Him”.

d) The Present Tense was used by John

i) The focus is the added aspect- “Abiding in the Spirit”.

ii) The word of encouragement is to continue to abide in the Spirit hence the translation “You will abide in Him”.

iii) The Present Tense describes on-going action.