Daily Bible Nugget #406, 1 John 2:24

The Nugget:

1Jn 2:24 Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father. (KJV)

1Jn 2:24 But as for you, keep in your hearts the things which were made clear to you from the first. If you keep these things in your hearts you will be kept in the Father and the Son. (Basic English Bible)

My Comment:A true believer in Jesus Christ remains true to the Gospel.To be true to the Gospel, we must remain true to the Bible. No compromise is allowed in this matter. If our belief system is not true to the Bible, then our belief system is wrong. If our belief is wrong, we will not receive the promise mentioned in 1 John 2:25, “And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.”In a similar way, Paul warned the Christians of the region of Galatia that they must not depart from the Gospel which he had proclaimed to them (Galatians 1:6, 7, 8, 9). Paul is very severe in his judgment or condemnation of anyone who would “preach any other gospel” to them. On such persons Paul pronounces a very severe curse. To make sure his readers then and now understood him, he repeats the curse for emphasis.The same message is declared by Jude when he wrote, “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 1:3). The original Greek text underlying our English translations uses a special and rarely used emphatic word for “once,” so that when fully translated, Jude declares that the true faith was “once for all” delivered unto the saints. Notice that the faith delivered to them was therefore complete, and nothing was to be added to it or changed. The basis of true faith in Jesus Christ can only be what is written in the New Testament.Any person who deviates from the truth taught in the New Testament, anyone who adds supposed further revelation to the New Testament, has departed from true faith in Jesus Christ. Carefully consider this truth: it means that many denominations and religions and so-called “teaching authorities” are very mistaken in their beliefs, and are fallen away from the true Gospel of Christ found in the New Testament.The Apostle John tells us in his second epistle or letter, “Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son” (2 John 1:9).John therefore declares that any person who departs from the true faith, a person who does not abide in the doctrine of Christ, does not have God. In plain English, John has told us that it is possible for individuals, even Bible teachers, to fail to stay true to the faith taught in the Bible. Such persons no longer have God. They have fallen away from the faith. They are guilty of apostasy. This is not just a hypothetical possibility. John is warning against a real problem: in 2 John 1:10, when John writes “If there come any unto you,” he uses what is called in Greek grammar the “first class condition,” which assumes the reality of the condition spoken of. Therefore, there were and still are such individuals who come with false doctrine. Those individuals do not have God. They must not be followed. This further supports the fact in Bible doctrine that Scripture teaches the absolute security of the believer, not the unbeliever. A person who has stopped believing (Luke 8:13) no longer has salvation, but has left the true faith.John tells us further, “If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed” (2 John 1:10). When John says “receive him not into your house,” he is speaking of the fact that Christians met for worship and fellowship in individual homes (see Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Colossians 4:15; Philemon 1:2), and that they were not to permit false teachers to present their message in those meetings, and they were to offer them no encouragement.True believers will grow in their faith, but they will not change their faith in a manner that would be a departure of what is taught in the Bible, and particularly what is taught in the New Testament.

Daily Bible Nugget #406, 1 John 2:24

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