NOTES for Jo1 2:22-28
In today's reading, the apostle John offers us criteria for determining the truth and acceptability of a given teaching or statement concerning the relationship between a person and God. The first criterion is given in verse 24: "Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father." In other words, the first condition for remaining in communion with God is faithfulness to the Gospel teaching. But there is also a second criterion, which John mentions in verse 27: anointing. What is this? In Jewish terminology, anointing was an outward sign of God's election and blessing. Here the anointing probably means not only blessing, but also the living presence of the Holy Spirit in the heart; it is no accident that this "living" anointing, as John says, "teaches us about everything." So the first criterion is the Gospel teaching, and the second is our living relationship with God. At the intersection of these criteria stands the teaching of the Church, which is created precisely on the basis of Scripture and the living experience of relationship with God.