Let’s read 1st John 2:26-27: “These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him” (NKJV).

In these verses the Apostle John is speaking to new Christians and warning them of false teachers who will try to deceive them by introducing false teachings that are NOT based on the Bible. In that day there was a cult known as the Gnostics who were guilty of doing this; today we have cults such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormons who are spreading their errors and deceiving newly-saved believers who are vulnerable to deception because they haven’t been established yet in the Word of God. That’s the BAD NEWS, but there is GOOD NEWS!

The good news is found in verse 27: “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you.” What is the “anointing” that we have received? It is the Person of the Holy Spirit! John had referred to Him already in verse 20: “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.” The moment one believes the gospel of Jesus Christ he/she receives the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 1:13 declares, “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.” Jesus had told His disciples this would happen in John 14:16-17: “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide in you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”

John emphasized the fact that because of the Holy Spirit abiding in them, “you do not need that anyone teach you.” This does NOT mean that there are no human teachers in the church of God, for we learn in Ephesians 4:11 that “He Himself [Christ] gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and TEACHERS.” What it does mean is that we do not need anyone to teach us apart from the Word of God and the Spirit of God. The cults come to us bringing teaching that is IN ADDITION TO THE WORD OF GOD, but all we need, as believers, is God’s Word and the Holy Spirit to teach us. A good passage that confirms this is 1st Corinthians 2:9-13: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches.” So, if we will yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit, He will instruct us from God’s Word. It may be directly as we are reading the scriptures, or it may be through a gifted teacher (as we saw in Ephesians 4:11) expounding the scriptures. The Holy Spirit is the “Author of the Bible” and He is the “Teacher of the Bible” and it is His mission to guide us into all truth. Jesus spoke of this in John 14:26 and 16:13: “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things…However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth.” Praise God for the gift of the Holy Spirit, Who will not only teach us God’s Word, but keep us from being deceived by false teachers!  (215.9)  (DO)