By I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.
1 John 2:26-27
Every Christian has received an anointing from God. It comes from God, abides in you, and teaches you to abide in Christ. This anointing is part of God’s blessing to His own to protect them from those who are trying to deceive them. If we remain in the Word of God blessed by the Spirit of God, then we will forever remain in Christ.
That is what these verses from 1 John about your anointing are about. John affirms that if you keep your head in the pages of Scripture, and submit yourself to the Spirit of God, then you have all you need to protect yourself from deception. We ought to “abide in the Truth” to such an extent that we are so fully convinced of it as the standard for faith and godliness that all other teachers, as helpful as they might be, are evaluated, not by their own worth, but by their commitment to the Word of God. v. 26 affirms the need for people like John to teach us, but v. 27 adds very clearly that our anointing is an added safeguard so we are helped by true teachers and protected from false teachers.
In God’s plan of reaching us who are sinners, and then also in God’s plan of sanctifying us who have been made saints, God has ordained that many human teachers are part of the plan. But God also gave us an anointing who teaches us. From John 14:26, John 15:26 and John 16:13-14, we know that this anointing is none other than the Holy Spirit Himself. God gave us good Bible teachers and the Holy Spirit to protect us from deception.
John Stott’s summarises it brilliantly in these words:
The Word is an objective safeguard, while the anointing of the Spirit is a subjective experience; but both the apostolic teaching and the heavenly teacher are necessary for continuance in the truth. … both are to be personally and inwardly grasped. This is the biblical balance which is too seldom preserved. Some honour the Word and neglect the Spirit who alone can interpret; others honour the Spirit but neglect the Word out of which he teaches. The only safeguard against lies is to have remaining within us both the Word that we heard from the beginning and the anointing that we received from him.
– John Stott, 1 John, Tyndale New Testament Commentary, 118
The Spirit-taught Word of God will protect you from deceptions, so eagerly and zealously abide in the Word and walk by the Spirit.