June 18 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"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 2:27).

Devotional

"The Lord's anointed" is the expressive and appropriate designation of all the Lord's people. It is this anointing that marks them as a "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession" (1 Pet. 2:9). It is the Lord's own distinguishing mark upon them; it designates them as his own.

All who are strangers to God's anointing are strangers to God's grace. They are strangers to the Holy Spirit's calling. They may have much spiritual light in their judgment. They may make an open profession of religion before the world. They may even have something of Jehu's "zeal for the Lord" (2 Kings 10:16). And yet that anointing of the Holy Spirit may be still lacking. And without that, all intellectual illumination and outward profession and party zeal count for nothing with a heart-searching God.

Just as the proper meaning of the endeared name, "Christ," is "Anointed," so also the true meaning of the honored label, "Christian," points us to the anointing, of which all who are united to Christ personally share.

I believe the remark to be as sad as it is true, that only eternity will fully unfold the amount of evil that has sprung from calling those Christians who call themselves Christians without any valid title to this appellation. How imperfectly are people in general aware of the deep, the significant, the spiritual import of the term, "Christian"! They do not realize that a Christian is one who partakes—in his renewing, sanctifying grace—of the very same Divine Holy Spirit with which the Father anointed Jesus for his great work.

The effects of this anointing are what you might expect from so glorious a cause. It beautifies the soul. It is that anointing spoken of by the Psalmist: "and oil to make his face to shine" (Ps. 104:15). Therefore it is called the "splendor of holiness" (Ps. 29:2). How a man's face shines—how his countenance is lighted up—when the joy of the Lord is his strength, when the spirit of adoption is in his soul, when the love of God is shed abroad in his heart!

It gladdens too. Therefore it is called the "oil of joy" (Ps. 45:7) and "the oil of gladness" (Isa. 61:3). It causes the heart to sing in its deep sorrows. It imparts the "the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit" (Isa. 61:3). It fills the soul with the glory of that "kingdom of God" which "is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 14:17).

Another effect springing from this anointing is the deep teaching it imparts—" But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge" (1 John 2:20).

Such are some of the effects of this holy anointing. It beautifies, gladdens, and teaches.

Come, Holy Spirit, come;
let thy bright beams arise;
dispel the darkness from our minds,
and open all our eyes.

(Joseph Hart, 1712–1768)

Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.

Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2025.