If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father
The guileless spirit abiding through the Word in the Son and in the Father, so as to receive the promise of eternal life
I.
“Let that therefore which ye have heard from the beginning abide in you.” The phrase “from the beginning” must here refer to the first preaching of the gospel. Let all of Christ you have ever known, seen, heard, handled, tasted, “abide in you.” Let all you have learned of Christ--as being with the Father, from everlasting, in His bosom--as coming forth from the Father to reveal and reconcile--as purging your sin with blood, and bringing you to be all to the Father that He is Himself to the Father--let it all “abide in you”; always, everywhere.
II. So “ye also shall abide in the Son and in the Father.” First, “Ye shall abide in the Son.” What the Lord elsewhere enjoins as in itself a duty, “Abide in Me” (Joh_15:4), the apostle describes as the consequence of another duty being rightly discharged. We abide in the Son, as we may be said to abide in anyone when his words abide in us--or when that which we have heard of him, or from him, from the beginning, abides in us; when we understand and know him by what he says and what we hear; when what we thus understand and know of him takes hold of us, carries our conviction, commands our confidence and love, fastens and rivets itself in our mind and heart, and so abides in us. Thus we abide in the Son precisely as we abide in a friend whom we know, and trust, and love. Let us turn all that we learn into the materials of that personal communing of Him with us and us with Him, which is indeed the essence of our abiding in the Son. All the rather let us do so because, secondly, this abiding in the Son is abiding in the Father; for the Father and the Son are one. Into all that the Son is to the Father, in these and other similar views of His mediatorial character and ministry as the Son, we enter when we abide in the Son. And so we come to be to the Father all that the Son is to the Father. We abide in the Father as the Son abides in the Father. So we abide in the Son and in the Father. And still all this depends on our letting “that which we have heard from the beginning abide in us.” It depends on that faith which cometh by hearing, as hearing cometh by the Word of God.
III. Of all this “the fruit is unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.” For “this is the promise that He hath promised us, even eternal life.” The meaning here may be that “the promise of eternal life” is superadded to the privilege or condition of our “abiding in the Son and in the Father,” that it is something over and above that held out to us in prospect; or it may be that our “abiding in the Son and in the Father” is itself the very “life eternal” that is promised. The difference is not material; the two thoughts, or rather the two modifications of the same thought, run into one. (R. S. Candlish, D. D.)
Christian doctrine, duty, privilege, and hope
I. Christian doctrine. It is the doctrine of the Father and of the Son. Christianity, while it by no means robs the eternal Father of His honour, at the same time promulgates the Saviour’s declaration, that it is the pleasure of the Father that all men should do honour to the Son even as they do honour to the Father. It is a dispensation of which Christ is the head, is the chief subject, is the principal Person, to whom all eyes are to be directed; while all honour, and glory, and majesty, and worship, and thanksgiving are poured out upon the Father in all ages, at the foot of the mediatorial throne.
II. The duty and privilege of the Church. What is the duty? “Let them abide in you.” And what the privilege? “If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.” Let it “abide in you”: but it must first obtain admission. Ah! and not only so, it must take its mighty grasp of the heart. And so it does wherever it comes in truth; it enters there to have its own way, first, to resist sin, then to imprison sin, and ultimately, by the grace of God, to cast it out.
III. The Christian hope. “This is the promise, even eternal life.” We are not content to live here always. No; we know there is a better land, a land of peace, of purity, and perfect bliss. (T. Mortimer, B. D.)
Vital godliness
There is a peculiar importance attached to these three little ins. There is a blessed union, a holy identity, an inseparable oneness between the persons and experience of real Christians and the persons and perfections of all the glorious Trinity in unity. Doctrinal godliness is union with Deity; experimental godliness is the enjoyment of Deity; practical godliness is the glorifying of Deity.
I. The antiquity of our religion. “That which ye have heard from the beginning.” What “beginning”? The beginning of the gospel? I grant that, if you wish; the beginning of the Christian dispensation. But go a little further back; the beginning of the prophetic vision--the beginning of the Mosaic economy--the beginning of the Abrahamic covenant--the beginning of the creation--go back as early as you will, and we will bear testimony that our faith is the faith of the ancients. If not, we will abandon it. Mark that beautiful account of the patriarchal faith recorded in the seventeenth of Genesis, and compare it with what is recorded by Paul in the Epistle to the Galatians, and the Epistle to the Romans and the Epistle to the Hebrews, and inquire whether they are not precisely the same faith, taught to both of them by the Holy Ghost. What was this ancient system? Our Lord tells us in plain terms, that “Abraham rejoiced to see His day, and he saw it and was glad.” Well, then, Abraham’s religion, Abraham’s faith, “that which was from the beginning,” simply consisted in seeing everything in Christ, beholding all he wanted in Christ, the Substitute, the Surety, the Daysman, the Sponsor of His whole Church. But we go further back than we have hitherto gone. “Where then?” say you? Up to the eternal councils of peace. I mean to.. say that all the religion worth having originated in heaven; it is the offspring of Deity. All that pertains to real godliness originates with God. Now here are certainties; here are securities. These are old-fashioned truths. Old-fashioned guineas, you know, are almost obsolete; but when we find them, we know they are valuable. Blessed be God, these truths are of sterling value and infinite importance; “that which we have heard from the beginning” our souls delight to dwell upon.
II. The living participation of this old-fashioned religion. “If it shall remain in you.” It must be “in you” in order to “remain” there. So that here is a religion put in a man, and of such a nature, and of such value, that it remains--abides, continues. What, then, is it? It is nothing less than a communication made from the throne of God, by the Holy Ghost, to the sinner’s heart. I should never be the better for what God my Father has given and God my Saviour has done, but for God the Holy Spirit’s communications to my soul. Every act of quickening is from His power; every whisper of love is by His voice. It is nothing less than the indwelling, the witnessing, the comforting, the instruction, the anointing of the Holy Ghost, resting upon the soul of man, that imparts one spiritual motion. I pass on to the term “remain”: “If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you.” “The Spirit of truth, whom ye know; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” “The Father shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever.” He never gives up His charge; He never forsakes His residence; He never abandons His work. It is a “remaining” religion. Now for the words--“remain in you.” Blessed be God, then there is no possibility of alteration. What is round about me, I cannot secure. But what is within me, secures me. It “remains” within: a vital principle, the life of God in the soul. It is “Christ in you, the hope of glory”; and the world and the devil must conquer Christ before they can turn Him out. Therefore He “remains”--“remains in you.”
III. Wherever this “remaining,” abiding, unconquerable, unchanging religion dwells in the soul, a lasting union between jehovah and that soul is demonstrated. “Continue in the Son and in the Father!” An inheritor of all the Son’s merit and of all the Father’s love; “an heir of God, a joint heir with Christ”; interested in all that Christ did and suffered, and interested in all that paternal love planned, ordained, and predestinated. The warrior may boast of his fame, the statesmen may carry their projects, the merchants may secure their fortunes, the pleasure taker may revel in his wickedness, worldlings of all sorts may have their gods; but give me mine. An interest in all that covenant love has bestowed, and all that covenant blood has bought, and all that covenant grace can impart. “But,” say you, “how am I to know this?” I am to know it by something “remaining in me”; I am to know it by having a covenant gift; I am to know it by having an old-fashioned religion remaining in my soul that the devil and earth and sin cannot turn out. And, therefore, if thou hast the earnest, the pledge given by Jehovah, the Spirit’s work in thy soul, thou hast all that constitutes assurance of interest “in the Son and in the Father.” “If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.” (J. Irons.)
