1 John 2:29

John has just warned his readers about antichrists who deny the Father and the Son, and about those who “went out from us, but they were not of us” (1 John 2:18–23). Over against them he reassured his little children that they have an anointing from the Holy One and know the truth. He urged them to let what they had heard from the beginning, the truth about Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, remain in them (1 John 2:24), and he told them that the anointing, the Holy Spirit, teaches them all things and is true (1 John 2:27). The command “abide in him” in verse 28 gathers all of this up. It is the end toward which those warnings were moving, and it ties their present faith and obedience to the certain return of Christ.

The letter was probably written from Ephesus toward the end of the first century, when the churches of that region were troubled by early forms of the teaching later called Gnosticism. Some of its teachers denied that Christ truly had a human body, and others split the divine Christ from the man Jesus, which emptied his death of its saving power. Many claimed a higher knowledge of God while living careless lives, holding that what the body did had nothing to do with the spirit. John’s call to abide in what they had heard “from the beginning”, and his plain words about doing righteousness, answer both errors. Verse 29 closes this part of the letter and leads into the fuller teaching on the children of God in 1 John 3.

The verb ménō means to stay, continue, dwell or remain. It is one of John’s favourite words, and “abiding in him” describes a continuing, close union with Jesus Christ in which the believer keeps drawing life, truth and strength from him. Jesus gave the picture himself: “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me” (John 15:4–5). He is the true vine. A branch lives by staying joined to the vine, and so do we.

Abiding is an active, living relationship. It means remaining in his love, his word and his presence, keeping his commands, holding to the truth about who he is, and being fed through prayer, Scripture and the fellowship of other believers. In this letter it has a sharp edge as well, because the false teachers had gone out. To abide is to stay with the Son whom they denied, in the fellowship they left.

John’s address, “little children”, is tekníon, a diminutive that means a little child and was used as a word of endearment, much like “darling”. He uses it often in this letter (1 John 2:1), and it carries the affection of a spiritual father for those he has brought up in the faith. The words “And now” mark the turn from warning to appeal, and the appeal comes from someone who loves them. He tells them to abide, and then he says “we may have confidence”, counting himself among those who will stand before the Lord.

John speaks of Christ’s return twice in this verse. “When he shall appear” uses phaneróō, to make visible or manifest, introduced by hótan, “when”. The “that” which opens the clause is hína, which gives the purpose of abiding: abiding now is the way to be ready then. “His coming” is parousía, his arrival, the word for the return or advent of Christ. Both words point to a real, visible event that John treats as certain. The early believers lived in expectation of it, and that hope gave them comfort and a strong reason for holy living.

His appearing will be a meeting face to face, when all will give account. Those who have stayed in him will be found faithful and ready, like the wise virgins whose lamps were ready when the bridegroom came (Matthew 25:1–13).

The word for confidence, parrhēsía, comes from words meaning all out-spokenness. It is frankness, openness and plainness of speech, and so assurance and boldness. Before God it means free access and glad assurance, the openness of a child with a father he trusts. At Christ’s coming it is the boldness of those who have abided in him, who can look up and meet him gladly.

The other side is shame. “Ashamed” is aischýnomai, to feel shame or disgrace. To be ashamed “before him at his coming” is to shrink before the Lord at the very moment of meeting him, with the regret and guilt that spiritual neglect, unfaithfulness or a merely outward faith would bring. In a world that prized honour and dreaded public disgrace, especially before someone in authority, this was a vivid picture.

John comes back to this confidence later in the letter, when he speaks of confidence toward God (1 John 3:21) and of boldness in the day of judgment (1 John 4:17). Paul looked toward the same day: “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:8).

“If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.” In English “know” stands twice in this verse, and John uses two Greek verbs for it, eídō and ginṓskō. Ginṓskō means to know, come to know, perceive or understand. Here it is the recognition that follows from what they already know: once we know who God is, we can recognise his children.

The argument runs from the Father to his children. He is righteous, and his righteousness is the standard by which all human conduct is measured. Those who are born of him take after him, so a righteous life is their family likeness. “Righteous” is díkaios and “righteousness” is dikaiosýnē, which comes from it and means conformity to God’s standard of what is just and right. Here it is something a person does. “Doeth righteousness” describes the steady practice of a life that agrees with God’s character and commands, a pattern of obedience, integrity and love that marks a person’s days.

“Born” is gennáō, to beget or bring forth, and in a figurative sense to give new spiritual life. Its form here, gegennētai, is the Greek perfect tense, a completed act with lasting results: such a person has been born of God and remains his child. This birth is God’s own work by his Spirit, the new birth Jesus told Nicodemus about when he said that a man must be born again (John 3:3–8). The order matters. God gives the new birth, and the righteous life follows from it as its fruit.

The righteousness John speaks of is seen perfectly in Jesus Christ, who did no sin, and in whose mouth no guile was found (1 Peter 2:22). He is righteous in himself and the source of righteousness for all who believe, for God has made him unto us righteousness (1 Corinthians 1:30). God is shaping his children to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29), so Christ is both the standard we reflect and the one whose Spirit makes such a life possible.

These two verses join what Christ will do to what God has already done. Christ will appear, and his coming is certain. The one who calls us to abide in him is the same Lord who keeps us, intercedes for us and will finish his work in us. The God who is righteous gives his children a new birth, and their lives come to bear his likeness. So the confidence John hopes for on that day rests on Christ, and the righteous life that shows we are God’s children is the fruit of his life in us. John speaks all of this to us as a father to his little children, so that we may meet our Lord gladly when he comes.