1 John 2:24

Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

1 John 2:24-25. Let that therefore abide in you — Namely, that doctrine concerning the Father and the Son; which ye have heard from the beginning — Of the preaching of the gospel: retain a firm belief of it, and let your minds be so impressed with a sense of its certain truth and infinite importance, that it may have the desired influence on your spirit and conduct. If that which ye have heard, &c., shall remain fixed and rooted in you — If you persevere in the faith of the gospel, and show that you do so by your life and conversation; ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father — Genuine members of Christ’s mystical body, and consequently in the love of God, and in communion with him. And, to encourage you in this, remember the promise, that he, the Son, hath made to us, if we abide in him, even eternal life.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:24-29 The truth of Christ, abiding in us, is a means to sever from sin, and unites us to the Son of God, Joh 15:3,4. What value should we put upon gospel truth! Thereby the promise of eternal life is made sure. The promise God makes, is suitable to his own greatness, power, and goodness; it is eternal life. The Spirit of truth will not lie; and he teaches all things in the present dispensation, all things necessary to our knowledge of God in Christ, and their glory in the gospel. The apostle repeats the kind words, little children; which denotes his affection. He would persuade by love. Gospel privileges oblige to gospel duties; and those anointed by the Lord Jesus abide with him. The new spiritual nature is from the Lord Christ. He that is constant to the practice of religion in trying times, shows that he is born from above, from the Lord Christ. Then, let us beware of holding the truth in unrighteousness, remembering that those only are born of God, who bear his holy image, and walk in his most righteous ways.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Let that therefore abide in you - Adhere steadfastly to it; let the truth obtain a permanent lodgement in the soul. In view of its great importance, and its influence on your happiness here and hereafter, let it never depart from you.

Which ye have heard from the beginning - That is, the same doctrines which you have always been taught respecting the Son of God and the way of salvation. See the notes at 1 John 2:7.

Ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father - Truly united to the Son and to the Father; or having evidence of the favor and friendship of the Son and the Father.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

24. Let that—truth respecting the Father and the Son, regarded as a seed not merely dropped in, but having taken root (1Jo 3:9).

ye—in the Greek standing emphatically at the beginning of the sentence. YE, therefore, acknowledge the Son, and so shall ye have the Father also (1Jo 2:23).

from the beginning—from the time of your first hearing the Gospel.

remain—Translate as before, "abide."

ye also—in your turn, as distinguished from "that which ye have heard," the seed abiding in you. Compare 1Jo 2:27, "the anointing abideth in you … ye shall abide in Him." Having taken into us the living seed of the truth concerning the Father and the Son, we become transformed into the likeness of Him whose seed we have taken into us.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

He only exhorts them to persevere in that faith which they at first received, whereby their union with God in Christ would be preserved entire.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Let that therefore abide in you,.... Meaning the word of God, 1Jo_2:14; the Gospel of Christ, which there was reason to believe had a place in their hearts, and which they had embraced and professed; and therefore the apostle exhorts them to perseverance in it; and particularly not to let go the doctrine concerning the Father and the Son, and this their relation to each other, which is the foundation of the doctrine of the Trinity, and of the distinct personality of Father, Son, and Spirit; the contrary to which leaves the three without either name, or distinction from each other: the arguments to enforce this exhortation follow,

which ye have heard from the beginning; they had heard it not externally only, but internally; they had hearkened to it, and from the heart obeyed it; they had mixed it with faith, and received the love of it; they had heard it from the apostles of Christ, who were eye and ear witnesses of the word; and this they had heard at the first preaching of the Gospel to them, at the first of their conversion: the apostles of Christ began their ministry with the sonship of Christ, and greatly insisted on it, in it, and required a profession of it before baptism, and which was made in order to it; and these believers had been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, as standing in such a relation to each other; see Act_9:20; and therefore ought not to relinquish this truth, and receive a new and upstart notion: and for further encouragement to continue in it, it is added,

if that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you,

ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father; as those that are once in either always will; what is here said is not either the cause or condition of men being in the Father, and in the Son, or of their continuance in them, but is descriptive of the persons that are in them, and is an open and manifest evidence of their being and continuance in them. Such are in union with Christ, and at times enjoy sensible communion with him, and shall never be finally and totally removed from it; they are in the love of Christ, from whence there is no separations, and in the arms and hands of Christ, out of which none can pluck them; and they abide by him in the exercise of faith and love, and cleave unto him with full purpose of heart, and will hold on and out, professing his name to the end: and they are, and abide in the love of God the Father, which is from everlasting to everlasting; and in the covenant of his grace, which is sure and inviolable; and in the participation of all the blessings and promises of it, among which, the following one, eternal life, is a principal one.

Geneva Study Bible

{24} Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.

(24) The whole preaching of the prophets and apostles is contrary to that doctrine, therefore it is utterly to be cast away, and this wholly to be held and kept, which leads us to seek eternal life in the free promise, that is to say, in Christ alone, who is given to us by the Father.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

1 John 2:24-25. Exhortation to the faithful keeping of the gospel. 1 John 2:24. ὑμεῖς] By the Recepta ὑμεῖς οὖν the correct relationship of this verse is taken away; it is not a conclusion from what immediately precedes (Düsterdieck, Braune), but with the emphasized ὑμεῖς it is put in contrast with what is said of the false teachers; Theophylact: ἐκεῖνοι μὲν οὖν οὕτως· ὑμεῖς δὲ ἅπερ ἠκούσατε ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς φυλάττετε παρʼ ἑαυτοῖς.

In regard to the construction: ὑμεῖς ὃ ἠκούσατε ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς, ἐν ὑμῖν μενέτω, Beza and Socinus, it is either an attraction (ὑμεῖς ὃ ἠκ. for ὃ ὑμεῖς ἠκούσ., so also Bengel: antitheton est in pronomine; ideo adhibetur trajectio; de Wette: “ὑμεῖς is properly no doubt the subject of the relative clause placed first;” Jachmann)[175] or an ellipsis (ὑμεῖς = quod ad vos attinet); Paulus and Ebrard regard ὑμεῖς as the pure vocative; but it is more correct to admit an anacolouthon which has its natural origin in this, that the apostle’s thought in opposition to the false teachers was first directed to his readers, but equally also to the word which they had heard from the beginning; accordingly the apostle begins with ὑμεῖς, but does not follow it up by μένετε ἐν or a similar expression, but by ὃ ἠκούσατε κ.τ.λ., as a new subject; comp. Winer, p. 506; VII. p. 534; Buttmann, p. 325. The same anacolouthon in 1 John 2:27.[176] With Ὃ ἨΚΟΎΣΑΤΕ ἈΠʼ ἈΡΧῆς, comp. 1 John 2:7; thereby, of course, the whole gospel is meant, but here specially the fundamental doctrine of it: that Jesus is the Christ.

ἘΝ ὙΜῖΝ] Theophylact interprets ἘΝ by ΠΑΡΆ; Luther: “among;” but the preposition must be retained in its proper meaning; for upon that it depends that what was heard “abides in the soul as something that determines the life” (Neander; comp. John 15:7), because only then does that take place which the apostle expresses in the sequel.

ΚΑῚ ὙΜΕῖς … ΜΕΝΕῖΤΕ] The ΚΑΊ before the concluding clause brings out more clearly its corresponding relationship to the preceding clause; here it is so much the more significant, as in both clauses the same verbal idea ΜΈΝΕΙΝ is used: If the Word remain in you, ye also will remain in the Son, etc.[177] That our remaining in the Son is the immediate result of the Word remaining in us, is explained by the fact that “the words of Christ substantially contain nothing else than a self-revelation or explanation of His person and His appearing, and similarly the evangelical proclamation of the apostles is only the copy of this preaching of Christ Himself” (Weiss). ἐν τῷ υἱῷ is put first, because fellowship with the Father is conditioned by fellowship with the Son.

[175] The idea of an attraction is erroneous, because “ὑμεῖς, if attracted to the relative clause, would be too strongly emphasized in this position” (Winer).

[176] Myrberg’s reply, that ὑμεῖς is rather to be regarded as nominative absolute, is met by the fact that the use of the nominative absolute is precisely an anacolouthon.

[177] Düsterdieck: “By καί before ὑμεῖς John specifies the promised consequence which will correspond to the condition which is stated, while at the same time he brings out the nice point which is contained, in the significant interchange of ἐν ὑμῖν μείνῃ and ὑμεῖς ἐν τῷ υἱῷ … μενεῖτε.”

Expositor's Greek Testament

1 John 2:24. ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς, as in 1 John 2:7. The significant iteration of μένειν is lost in A.V. (“abide … remain … continue”). ἐν τῷ Υἱῷ καὶ ἐν τῷ Πατρί: observe the order. The Son is the manifestation of the Father; through Him we reach the Unseen Father (cf. John 14:9).

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

24. Let that therefore abide in you] The ‘therefore’ is undoubtedly to be omitted: it is a mistaken insertion in many of those inferior MSS. which omit the second half of 1 John 2:23. This verse begins with a very emphatic pronoun; As for you (in contrast to these antichristian liars), let that abide in you which ye heard from the beginning. The pronoun in the Greek is a nominativus pendens: comp. John 6:39; John 7:38; John 14:12; John 15:2; John 17:2; Revelation 2:26; Revelation 3:12; Revelation 3:21. The verb is an aorist and should be retained as such, as in 1 John 2:7 : it points to the definite period when they were first instructed in the faith. ‘Hold fast the Gospel which ye first heard, and reject the innovations of these false teachers’.

If that which ye have heard … shall remain in you, ye also shall continue] Better, as R. V., if that which ye heard … abide in you, ye also shall abide. Here the arbitrary distinctions introduced by the translators of 1611 reach a climax: the same Greek word (μένειν) is rendered in three different ways in the same verse. Elsewhere it is rendered in four other ways, making seven English words to one Greek: ‘dwell’ (John 1:39; John 6:56; John 14:10; John 14:17), ‘tarry’ (John 4:40, John 21:22-23), ‘endure’ (John 6:27), ‘be present’ (John 14:25). The translators in their Address to the Reader tell us that these changes were often made knowingly and sometimes of set purpose. They are generally regrettable, and here are doubly so: (1) an expression characteristic of S. John and of deep meaning is blurred, (2) the emphasis gained by iteration, which is also characteristic of S. John, is entirely lost. ‘Let the truths which were first taught you have a home in your hearts: if these have a home in you, ye also shall have a home in the Son and in the Father’.

Bengel's Gnomen

1 John 2:24. Ὑμεῖς, you) There is an antithesis in the pronoun: therefore a transposition is used, as in 1 John 2:27.—ὅ) that which, respecting the Father and the Son.—ἠκούσατε, ye have heard) This is to be pronounced with emphasis.—μενέτω, let it abide) He uses exhortation. Wherefore, if it abides, has this meaning; If you shall be of the character of those in whom it abides.—ὃ ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς, that which is from the beginning) Now this is to be pronounced with emphasis.—καὶ ὑμεῖς, ye also) in your turn. Thus, in you, in Him, 1 John 2:27.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 24-28. - Exhortation to abide in the truth and in God. Verse 24. - The οϋν of the T.R. must certainly be rejected. The ὑμεῖς placed first marks the antithesis, "as for you," as distinct from the antichrists. With singular caprice the Authorized Version renders St. John's favourite verb, μένειν, in three different ways in this one verse - "abide," "remain," "continue;" thereby losing the emphasis of the repetition: "Let the good seed abide in your hearts; not be snatched away by the evil one. Then not only will it abide, but ye also καὶ ὑμεῖς will abide in the Son, and therefore with the Father." From the beginning; when they first heard the gospel, as distinct from what they have since heard from false teachers. 1 John 2:24

Vincent's Word Studies

As for you (ὑμεῖς)

This is the rendering of the Rev. The force of the emphatic you at the beginning of the sentence is utterly lost in the A.V., which takes the pronoun simply as nominative to ye have heard. You is emphatic by way of contrast with the false teachers (1 John 2:22).

From the beginning

See on 1 John 1:1. Notice the change in the order of the repeated sentence, that which ye heard from the beginning: ὃ ἠκούσατε ἀπ' ἀρχῆς, that which ye heard; the emphasis being on their reception of the message: ὃ ἀπ ἀρχῆς ἠκούσατε, that which ye heard from the beginning; emphasizing the time of the reception as coincident with the origin of their faith.

In the Son and in the Father

Compare the reverse order in 1 John 2:22. "Here the thought is that of rising through the confession of the Son to the knowledge of the Father; there the thought is of the issue of denial culminating in the denial of the Father" (Westcott).