12-10-2017 How Do You Know? 1 John 2:3-6
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Introduction:
Christmas is coming, and certainly we all are familiar with the Christmas story. You know that baby Jesus came over about 2000 years ago to fulfill the promise of the Messiah from YHWH. You know that prophecy was spoken and fulfilled considering the details and the manner in which Jesus came. You know how the angel Gabriel told a humble Mary that she would give birth to a boy that she was to name Jesus. You also know the meager estate into which Jesus, in flesh, entered this human world: The stable, among shepherds, with a multitude of angels praising and singing to YHWH. you already know about an extraordinarily bright star that was provided by YHWH to lead a group of wise men to where Jesus was staying. And somewhere along these years, you’ve likely heard about King Herod’s sentiments to this new born King. It is with confidence that I can say you know the Christmas story already. But does it follow that if you know the Christmas story so well, that you already know Jesus just as well? Do your really know the Son?
Transition:
Let’s back up a step. How do we know if we really know God? We live in a day when many people are not even slightly interested in really knowing God. They want to live like they want as being their own gods. To sincerely know God is the furthest thing purposely from their minds. And don’t try to argue them to Christ, because they’ll find a way to justify their sin! Someone once wisely said, “It isn’t the things we know that gets us into trouble. It’s the things we know for sure that do.”
This is an immensely important spiritual issue because if God really exists, then those who reject Him will be accused of the one and only unpardonable sin, rejecting, and therefore, blaspheming God. They will never really know what real love is. They will not know of the abundance of a rich and full life both now and eternally. If we don’t know God, we will miss out on everything that God meant life to be. We will never really know what we’ve been created for.
For all those who reject God, they must know that the day will come when they will have to stand before God and confront His holiness and justice face-to-Face. They will have to endure His judgment. So we must know God. But how can we tell if we really know God? John addresses one sure way that we can be confident in that answer:
Scripture Reading:
3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
John could not be any clearer on this answer! There are no analogies here, no similes, no metaphors. We cannot justify some ambitious, ambiguous allegorical interpretation here. There are absolutely no grammatical markers that suggest anything except a natural, literal interpretation. It is fair to say this is pretty black and white. James spent the whole second half of the first chapter on the topic of walking in the light. So now he introduces another element of walking in the light: a “light walk” involves obedience.
Transition:
So with no room for debate on which hermeneutical stance to take, let’s now move to the exegesis or the words of this morning’s text. These words deal primarily with two intertwined theological topics: Belief and Obedience
I. Belief (v.3-4)
I. Belief (v.3-4)
And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.
In this and the following verses we see that a healthy relationship with God is contingent on obedience to His commands and imitation of Christ (2:3–6) and that personal proof of a relationship with God is obedience.
It is near impossible to obey if belief is absent. Consider human authority. It’s really hard for a child to obey his parents if he doesn’t believe that the parents have the ability / the means / the desire to keep the child accountable or the ability to follow through. An example of this might be:
The mother and father of a teenage girl allows the boy to stay home alone for a couple hours in order to do Christmas shopping and while they are gone, the girl is given specific instructions not to have her neighbor friends over while they are gone. This teenage girl might recognize that her parents couldn’t possibly be able to know if the friends were over for just about a half hour (no belief in the accountability). This teenage girl might recall previous times of disobedience when the parents “let her off the hook” then (no belief in the desire and follow through). And perhaps as she’s thinking these things through, her friends are at the door knocking. Maybe this girl has a great relationship with our Lord and will still obey, but how much harder would it be to obey if she had no belief in her parents abilities, and especially no belief in her accountability to God.
“By this we know we have come to know Him” More literally this is “we know that we have known Him.” This is emphasizing that the Christians of these problem churches can have the full assurance of their salvation. The word “know” is used in its Hebrew sense of personal relationship (as in Jeremiah. 1:5)
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came out from the womb I consecrated you; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
and its Greek sense of facts about something or someone.
Henry Donald Spence wrote that This knowledge is no mere intellectual apprehension, such as these false teachers proposed, but a moral and spiritual affection and activity. It is possible to know and hate. Again, the knowledge is not a mere emotional appreciation. Christianity knows nothing of piety without morality. To know Christ is to love him, and to love him is to obey and imitate him.
back to our 1 John passage:
The emphases in this phrase are:
we can know God;
we can know what He wants for our lives; and
we can know that we know! (cf. 5:13).
One of the assurances of our relationship with God is revealed by our actions and motives (cf. Matt. 7; James, I Peter). This is a recurrent theme of I John (cf. 2:3, 5; 3:24; 4:13; 5:2, 13).
John’s writings use two Greek words for “know” (ginōskō and oida) often (27 times in five chapters) and synonymously. There seems to be no discernable semantic distinction between these terms in Koine Greek. The choice is purely stylistic. It is also interesting that John does not use the intensified term epiginōskō.
John is writing to encourage believers as well as refute heresy. The Gospel of John and I John use the terms for “know” more than any other of the books in the NT. I John is a book of assurance based on knowledge of the gospel and commensurate lifestyle love and obedience
“if” This is a THIRD CLASS CONDITIONAL SENTENCE which means potential action.
“we keep His commandments” Notice the conditional element (PRESENT ACTIVE SUBJUNCTIVE). The new covenant is unconditional as to God’s offer but conditional as to mankind’s repentant faith and obedient response (cf. 2:3–5; 3:22, 24; 5:2, 3; John 8:51–52; 14:15, 21, 23; 15:10; Rev. 2:26; 3:8, 10; 12:17; 14:12). One of the evidences for true conversion is obedience to Light (both Jesus and the gospel). Even in the OT obedience was better than sacrificial ritual (cf. 1 Sam. 15:22; Jer. 7:22–23).
The one who says “I have come to know him,” and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in this person.
We know by keeping. This verse explains this truth more clearly.
So who is saying this “I have come to know Him”?
“The one who says” Notice how John didn't use the word “We” because he is not going to identify with these false teachers.
This is one of several claims of the false teachers (cf. 1:6, 8, 10; 2:4, 6, 9). This is what is called a diatribe (“the one who says …”), and we’ve seen this before: it’s similar to portions of the epistle of James. The false teachers were claiming to know (PERFECT TENSE) God but were trying to separate salvation from lifestyle morality. They claimed superior knowledge of God, but their lifestyles revealed their true motives.
“and does not keep His commandments” This is a PRESENT ACTIVE PARTICIPLE which speaks of habitual lifestyle action. Our lives reveal our spiritual orientation. Verse 4 expresses the truth negatively, while verse 5 expresses the same truth positively.
“is a liar” A liar does not have truth resident within him. When John calls him a liar here, he is making a judgment statement about the person’s character. He is not just lying to himself. He is a kind of person, a liar. John’s point in these two verses is that a person can claim knowledge (relationship), but the reality of that relationship is measured by obedience.
There is nothing worse than self-willed deception! Obedience is evidence of true conversion. Even Jesus said in Matt. 7: You shall know them by their fruit.
16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
This case is still John being hypothetical—in other words: “if there be such a man, he is a liar, and has no idea of truth.” He must have lost the very power of recognizing truth to maintain that he knows Christ, when he habitually transgresses his commands. He is clarifying that just because one claims to know God relationally, that claim may not be true. Its validity is determined by actions. It is no great thing, to know as the devils do, who “believe and tremble.”
“the truth is not in this person” What does this mean? Is John saying this person is unsaved?
Well… to answer this, you must ask is the converse true? can keeping God’s commands equal salvation?
It is important that we not read every description of a person soteriologically—in regards to salvation. We must remember that not all saints are saintly in their behavior. What he means by this is that truth is not a controlling influence in the believer’s life as was the case a chapter ago in 1:6, 8, and 10.
Transition:
II. Obedience (v.5-6)
II. Obedience (v.5-6)
Obedience is a crucial aspect of covenant faith.
But whoever keeps his word, truly in this person the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that we are in him.
Once more (cf. ch. 1:7, 9) we see again how the opposite is stated to allow the thought to develop further.
“but whoever keeps His word” This is PRESENT ACTIVE SUBJUNCTIVE which means that this is referring to a habitual lifestyle action-- “whoever is continually keeping His word...” . The grammar seems to express generally occurring circumstances—not sporadic or out of the ordinary to keep God’s Word. This is the central message of I John and James. One cannot say He knows God and yet reject both the living Word and the written Word by a lifestyle marked by sin! This passage is, topically speaking, the center of the entire epistle.
“in him the love of God has truly been perfected” This is a PERFECT PASSIVE INDICATIVE which speaks of completed action (cf. 4:12, 17, 18).
“love of God” Wait! is this God’s love for us, our love for God, or just God’s love in general?
It is uncertain, grammatically speaking, whether this GENITIVE/ in english we would say “possessive” phrase is speaking of God’s love for us, our love for God, or just God’s love in general in our hearts. The term “perfect” (telos cf. 4:12, 17, 18) means mature, complete, or fully equipped for an assigned task, not without sin (cf. 1:8, 10).
“By this we know that we are in Him” Here again is the emphasis on believers’ ability to have confidence in their relationship with God. The concept of our being in Him is also a reoccurring theme of John’s writings.
Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
Is this the Holy Spirit abiding in us or Jesus? John will also assert later in his first epistle that even the Father abides in us (cf. 1 John 5:20) and so that both the Father and the Son abide in us.
The one who says that he resides in him ought also to walk just as that one walked.
Notice here that even in a clause which emphasizes assurance there is the need for, and implied warning, of “ought”. Not a whole lot is being assumed by the apostle John when he’s combating heresy.
“in Him” Who is the Him? the Father or the Son?
The PRONOUNS are ambiguous as to whether they refer to God the Father or God the Son. In v. 6 the context demands “the Son” (as does later in this epistle: 3:2, 5, 7, 16; 4:17). However, for John, there is an inseparable connection between the redemptive and sanctifying actions of our Triune God.
“resides/abides”
Here in his epistle, as well as in this Gospel, the concept of abiding is described as
the believer in God (2:24, 27, 28; 3:6),
God in the believer (4:12),
and the mutual abiding of both the believer and God.
Abiding involves habitual obedience. It is a life lived like Christ lived His. What John says is that the claim of abiding carries with it an obligation. And so although habitual obedience is not automatic in the life of the believer, it is an obligation.
“ ought to walk in the same way in which he walked” (ESV) This is another emphasis on “true faith” as lifestyle faith. Faith is not only a decision, but an ongoing personal relationship with Jesus that naturally issues in daily Christlike living. This might seem very familiar and should considering what John said in 1:7.
He is pointing to Jesus as the example, much like John the Baptist pointed out Jesus to his disciples when he cried out, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” (John 1:29).
29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
Dr. Bob Utley speaks of this verse on how we apply this walk:
The goal of Christianity is not just heaven when we die, but Christlikeness now! We are saved to serve. We are sent on mission as He was sent on mission. As He laid down His life for others, so we too, must see ourselves as servants.
The apostle John will confirm this servant assertion in the next chapter as we’ll see in January.
So What?
So What?
We need to examine ourselves from time to time to make sure God is pleased with our actions. Are we staying on track with the keeping of His commands?
If a person says he abides in Christ, he must be a responsible person. He ought to walk as Jesus walked. The person who professes Jesus, who claims that he knows God, is obligated to walk as Christ walked.
Jerry Cosper, a baptist preacher from San Antonio, Texas, once said:
OK! OK! [sic] We know we should walk as Jesus walked. What does that mean? How did Jesus walk upon earth? He walked:
• Believing and trusting God.
• Worshipping and praying to God
• Fellowshipping and communing with God.
• Giving and sacrificing all He was and had to God.
• Seeking and following after God.
• Teaching and telling others about God.
• Loving and caring for others just as God said to do.
• Obeying all of God’s commands.
Conversely, disobedience reveals the lack of a personal knowledge of Jesus in the same way that the apostles, who accompanied Jesus for three and a half years, lacked that knowledge in the Upper Room. Thus, claiming to know Him while disobeying His word is to live a lie, described by John as “the truth is not in him.”
John is not saying by this that imitation of Christ proves union with Him. Rather that the moral obligation that fellowship with Jesus produces is an obligation to imitate His lifestyle. It should lead to the “What Would Jesus Do?” mind-set. This imitation is “far more profound than merely mimicking externals or even obeying Christ’s expressed will in a formal way.” It should include imitating Jesus’ motivation for His conduct as well, the unlimited devotion to the Father’s will that characterized His every action, attitude, and word.
Conclusion:
Do you want to know God? Obey His basic commands of believing in Jesus Christ, and loving one another, and His light will begin to shine so brightly through you that it may outshine even my head!
