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James and 1, 2, and 3 John

  1. Lesson One
    Overview of James
    18 Activities
    |
    1 Assessment
  2. Lesson Two
    James and Scripture
    19 Activities
  3. Lesson Three
    1 John
    21 Activities
  4. Lesson Four
    2 and 3 John
    21 Activities
  5. Lesson Five
    Proto-Gnosticism
    13 Activities
  6. Course Wrap-up
    Course Completion
    1 Activity
    |
    1 Assessment

Participants 5

James and 1, 2, and 3 John 1 John In | Christians Are “Little Anointed Ones”
Lesson 3, Activity 13

In | Christians Are “Little Anointed Ones”

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Read 1 John 2:20, 27 NIV below:

But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth . . . 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.

This reference connects believers with Jesus in a subtle but profound way. Jesus himself had anointing from the “Holy One” (the Holy Spirit), as he claimed by reading from Isaiah in the synagogue:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free . . .
Luke 4:18 NIV

We’re reminded in passages like this how radical God’s hope for us really is. Jesus’ humanity is a model for our own. Dr. Andreas Köstenberger draws out this connection:

What becomes clear, then, is that the anointing of Jesus with the Holy Spirit at his baptism . . . serves as the paradigm for believers’ reception (or “anointing with”) the Holy Spirit at conversion. This marks them as “little anointed ones,” followers of Jesus the Messiah, who, like he, have the Holy Spirit rest on them.

The Holy Spirit dwells in and anoints believers in the same way that he anointed the Son in the New Testament. Passages like this in 1 John, and the New Testament as a whole, are easy to overlook. However, they ought to remind us that Christians are not distant followers of an ancient model or doctrine, but are living extensions of God’s own life and ministry on earth. More than members of a religious group, Christians are “little anointed ones” after the fashion of God Himself. This comment recalls another by the twentieth century lay theologian C. S. Lewis: 

The whole offer which Christianity makes is this: that we can, if we let God have His way, come to share in the life of Christ. If we do, we shall then be sharing a life which was begotten, not made, which always has existed and always will exist. Christ is the Son of God. If we share in this kind of life we also shall be sons of God. We shall love the Father as He does and the Holy Ghost will arise in us. He came to this world and became a man in order to spread to other men the kind of life He has—by what I call good infection. Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.

Quotes from: Andreas J. Köstenberger, A Theology of John’s Gospel and Letters, 2009, p. 401; C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 2001 [1952], p. 177.