But the anointing 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.
But - Greek, 'And you (contrasting believers with the seducers: and you stands prominent, the construction of the sentence following being altered, no verb agreeing with "and you" until "need not") ... the anointing,' etc. (resumed from 1 John 2:20).
Received of him - (John 1:16.) So 2 Corinthians 2:15.
Abideth in you. He tacitly admonishes them to say to seducers, 'The anointing abideth in us: we do not need a teacher (for we have the Holy Spirit as our teacher, Jeremiah 31:34; John 6:45; John 16:13): it teaches us the truth: in it we will abide' (Bengel).
And - and therefore. God sufficient for those taught of Him: they are independent of others, though, of course, not declining the counsel of faithful ministers. 'Mutual communication is not set aside, but approved of, in the case of partakers of the anointing in one body' (Bengel).
The same anointing - which ye once for all received, and which still abides in you.
Of - `concerning.'
All things - essential salvation: the point under discussion. Not that the believer is infallible; for none here receive the Spirit in its fullness, but only the measure needful for keeping him from soul-destroying error. So the Church, though having the Spirit in her, is not infallible (for fallible members can never make one infallible whole), but is kept from ever wholly losing everywhere the saving truth.
No lie - as anti-Christian teaching.
Ye shall abide in him (1 John 2:24, end) - even as 'the anointing abideth in you.' The oldest manuscripts read the imperative, 'abide in Him.'