The Anointing which Establishes.
I. Notice the deep source of Christian steadfastness. The language of the original, carefully considered, seems to me to bear this interpretation, that the "anointing" of the second clause is the means of the "establishing" of the first, that is to say, that God confers Christian steadfastness of character by the bestowment of the unction of His Divine Spirit. No man will be surely bound to the truth and person of Christ with bonds that cannot be snapped except he who in his heart has the knowledge which is possession by the gift of that Divine Spirit to knit him to Jesus Christ.
II. In the next place, notice the aim or purpose of this Christian steadfastness. The words "in Christ" seem to me to imply (1) that our steadfastness, made possible by our possession of that Divine Spirit, is steadfastness in our relations to Jesus Christ; (2) that such steadfastness as we have been trying to describe has for its result a deeper penetration into Jesus Christ and a fuller possession of Him.
III. Notice the very humble and commonplace sphere in which the Christian steadfastness manifests itself. It was nothing of more importance than that Paul had said he was going to Corinth, and did not, on which he brings all this array of great principles to bear. From which I gather just this thought, that the highest gifts of God's grace and the greatest truths of God's word are meant to regulate the tiniest things in our daily life.
A. Maclaren, The Unchanging Christ,p. 93.