But you have an anointing from the
Holy One, and you all know. . . . As for you, the anointing which you received
from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as
His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and
just as it has taught you, you abide in Him. (1 John 2:20, 27 NASB)
Addressing 1 John 2:20, 27 (texts often used against high
ecclesiologies), Urban C. Von Wahlde noted that:
. . . it is in this very context
that the author reminds his readers that they have an ‘anointing’ (χρισμα) (2.20, 27). Thus, the author
recalls that the believers are anointed also by the Spirit. Yet the author’s
view is different from that of the opponents because he reminds his readers
(2.27):
+ As for you—the anointing that
you received from him [God] abides in you,
+ and you do not have need
that anyone teach you,
+ but as his [God]s
anointing teaches you about all
+ and it is true
and not false
+ and just as it taught you,
+ you abide in him [Jesus].
What does the Spirit teach? It teaches the believer to abide in Jesus. This clarifies the meaning of the previous verses. It is not a matter of abiding in a particular view of Jesus but abiding in Jesus simpliciter dictum. It is not a matter of Docetic polemic, but a matter of the opponents’ denial of any permanent role for Jesus. For the opponents, Jesus had truly been the herald of the giving of the eschatological Spirit; but he was only the herald, and once the Spirit was given, he was thought to have no further role. From that point on, it was the Sprit that was the effective agent of salvation. The author of 1 John works through his ‘tract’ to refute this. (Urban C. Von Wahlde, Gnosticism, Docetism, and the Judaisms of the First Century: The Search for the Wider Context of the Johannine Literature and Why It Matters [Library of New Testament Studies 517; London: T&T Clark, 2015, 2016], 74-75)
