Without the spirit, no one understand the scripture, much less believe them
Without the Spirit noone can apply Scripture or believe it, anyone can read and understand Jesus rose from the dead, only the Spirit helps us believe it.
1Jo 2:27 But the anointing (Holy Ghost) which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
Albert Barnes
And ye know all things—That is, all things which it is essential that you should know on the subject of religion. See the John 16:13 note; 1 Cor. 2:15 note. The meaning cannot be that they knew all things pertaining to history, to science, to literature, and to the arts; but that, under the influences of the Holy Spirit, they had been made so thoroughly acquainted with the truths and duties of the Christian religion, that they might be regarded as safe from the danger or fatal error. The same may be said of all true Christians now, that they are so taught by the Spirit of God, that they have a practical acquaintance with what religion is, and with what it requires, and are secure from falling into fatal error. In regard to the general meaning of this verse, then, it may he observed:
I. That it does not mean any one of the following things:
(1) That Christians are literally instructed by the Holy Spirit in all things, or that they literally understand all subjects. The teaching, whatever it may be, refers only to religion.
(2) IT IS NOT MEANT THAT ANY NEW FACULTIES OF MIND ARE CONFERRED ON THEM, OR ANY INCREASED INTELLECTUAL ENDOWMENTS, BY THEIR RELIGION. IT IS NOT A FACT THAT CHRISTIANS, AS SUCH, ARE SUPERIOR IN MENTAL ENDOWMENTS T
THERS; NOR THAT BY THEIR RELIGION THEY HAVE ANY MENTAL TRAITS WHICH THEY HAD NOT BEFORE THEIR CONVERSION. PAUL, PETER, AND JOHN HAD ESSENTIALLY THE SAME MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS AFTER THEIR CONVERSION WHICH THEY HAD BEFORE; AND THE SAME IS TRUE OF ALL CHRISTIANS.
(3)
IT IS NOT MEANT THAT ANY NEW TRUTH IS REVEALED TO THE MIND BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. ALL THE TRUTH THAT IS BROUGHT BEFORE THE MIND OF THE CHRISTIAN IS TO BE FOUND IN THE WORD OF GOD, AND “REVELATION,” AS SUCH, WAS COMPLETED WHEN THE BIBLE WAS FINISHED.
(4)
IT IS NOT MEANT THAT ANYTHING IS PERCEIVED BY CHRISTIANS WHICH THEY HAD NOT THE NATURAL FACULTY FOR PERCEIVING BEFORE THEIR CONVERSION, OR WHICH OTHER PEOPLE HAVE NOT ALSO THE NATURAL FACULTY FOR PERCEIVING. THE DIFFICULTY WITH PEOPLE IS NOT A DEFECT OF NATURAL FACULTIES, IT IS IN THE BLINDNESS OF THE HEART.
II. The statement here made by John “does” imply, it is supposed, the following things:
(1) That the minds of Christians are so enlightened that they have a new perception of the truth. They see it in a light in which they did not before. They see it as truth. They see its beauty, its force, its adapted less to their condition and wants. They understand the subject of religion better than they once did, and better than others do. What was once dark appears now plain; what once had no beauty to their minds now appears beautiful; what was once repellant is now attractive.
(2) THEY SEE THIS to be true; that is, they see it in such a light that they cannot doubt that it is true. They have such views of the doctrines of religion, that they have no doubt that they are true, and are willing on the belief of their truth to lay down their lives, and stake their eternal interests.
(3) THEIR KNOWLEDGE OF TRUTH IS ENLARGED. THEY BECOME ACQUAINTED WITH more truths than they would have known if they had not been under the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Their range of thought is greater; their vision more extended, as well as more clear.
Adam Clarke
But the anointing which ye have received—That ointment, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, mentioned 1 John 2:20 (note).
Ye need not that any man teach you—The Gnostics, who pretended to the highest illumination, could bring no proof that they were divinely taught, nor had they any thing in their teaching worthy the acceptance of the meanest Christian; therefore they had no need of that, nor of any other teaching but that which the same anointing teacheth, the same Spirit from whom they had already received the light of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ. Whatever that taught, they needed; and whatever those taught whose teaching was according to this Spirit, they needed.
St. John does not say that those who had once received the teaching of the Divine Spirit had no farther need of the ministry of the Gospel; no, but he says they had no need of such teaching as their false teachers proposed to them; nor of any other teaching that was different from that anointing, i.e. the teaching of the Spirit of God. No man, howsoever holy, wise, or pure, can ever be in such a state as to have no need of the Gospel ministry: they who think so give the highest proof that they have never yet learned of Christ or his Spirit.
[ April 18, 2006, 06:46 PM: Message edited by: Jo$h ]
