We have an anointing from the holy One, and we know all things. (1 John 2:20)
In the middle of hell week – the week that I spent taking my comprehensive exams for my Ph.D. – I ran out of gas and could go no further. Studying was useless. I couldn’t concentrate. I was tired, and I wanted to give up. I sat at my desk that Wednesday afternoon and cried, “Lord, I don’t know what to do. Please don’t let me fail!”
The thing about comprehensive exams is that you never know what questions you’re going to get, so you have to know everything. By that Wednesday, I had made my way through six exams so far, and had another four to go. But there were still dozens of possible questions they could have asked me, and each question was encyclopedic in nature. Knowing the question did not guarantee the successful provision of the answer. But if I could know the question, I could study my notes on that subject, and that would be a huge break!
Suddenly, the name Troeltsch flashed across my mind. I took it as a word from the Lord and turned to my notes on Ernst Troeltsch, the early 20th century German theologian. The next morning when I sat down to take the first exam of the day, I was very pleased to see that the question regarded the significance of the theories of Ernst Troeltsch.
Finding that name was like finding a needle in a haystack. There were hundreds of possible names I could have been asked about. But the Holy Spirit knew the one name that I would be asked about. And the Holy Spirit decided to share that information with me that night. That is the benefit of being anointed.
Now, we need to understand that word. The word anointed literally means “oiled.” “But you have an oiling from the holy One.” Jesus Christ is the anointed One, which means he is the “oily One.”
Oil was used in the OT to set things apart for divine purposes. It was also used to signify divine empowerment that went beyond human resources. Here, John says that the anointing makes you an expert: You need not that anyone should teach you, he says. The anointing teaches you about all things, he says.
Really? I don’t need anyone to teach me? Ever? About anything?
Well . . . there’s a context. First, he says, I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray (v 26). Then he says, As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit–just as it has taught you, remain in him (v 27).
The point John is making is that the Holy Spirit lives in you, and he knows all things. That means that the knowledge of all things resides within you. In the face of deception, in the face of error, the Holy Spirit makes you an expert. This does not mean that you are omniscient, that you know everything, that you never need anyone to teach you anything, ever again. But what it does mean is that you can always expect the Holy Spirit to protect you from error. He won’t let you fail; he will release the exact knowledge necessary for your situation, if you continue to trust in him.
Share your thoughts:
Has there ever been a time in your life in which the Spirit of God gave you information that you couldn’t have known in the natural?
