I John 2:25-29

Abiding in righteous living.

The promise of Jesus is eternal life, so remaining steadfast in reliance upon Him is a natural, obvious, and wise course of life. There isn’t a more successful approach to living as long as you measure success in eternal terms.

John has been trying to warn his readers of the dangers of the deceptive ideologies that were tempting them. They were being taught to doubt their own knowledge and judgment. The false teachers were inculcating a fear of missing out. In contrast, John reminds them of the unsurpassable gift promised by Jesus: eternal life.

Then he reminds them that the Holy Spirit Himself abides in them and teaches them that they abide in Jesus. In a substantial sense they have no further need of teachers beyond the Holy Spirit or of knowledge beyond the promise of eternal life.

God cannot lie so there need be no doubts about the reliability and truthfulness of His promises or instruction. And in particular both we and they should be confident that we abide in Him.

He is our residence and is our companion — not our peer but instead our Lord and God: provider, sustainer, delight, and glory. He is our inheritance and we are His.

The positive reaction to this encouragement is to settle down with confidence into a state of fellowship with Christ and live out such a relationship by leading a righteous life. This is something to pursue persistently because Jesus is set to reappear and snatch us all into the presence of God, leaving the suffering and evil of this world behind forevermore.

We do not want to be embarrassed by our behavior at that moment, feeling a desire to hide from Him when He appears. Remember Adam and Eve in the garden when the Lord came looking for them.

It is obvious He is righteous and every one properly related to Him is going to be in a habit of walking in righteousness.

The return of Christ to rescue us from the from the climax of evil and judgment at the end of the age is called "our blessed hope" and indeed it should be. That would be the normal perspective given that we are abiding in Him and walking by His grace.

God will be leading us along toward the forsaking of sinful habits and there will be the continual cleansing by the blood of Christ. Our conscience should be clean not because we are wonderful but because He is.

In sum: Jesus promises eternal life. The Holy Spirit assures us that we belong to Jesus. Neither One is able to lie. Let this abiding in Him come to the fruition of righteous living.

Previous Scripture Notes

You can find notes that were published earlier on this page.

Pursuit of wisdom for today from the Ancient of Days

Join us for:

iumbic notes

Fortnightly newsletter with stabilizing truth and peace of mind from the Bible.

free copy of Flourish

Put down roots and thrive by God’s word.

Send my book