Do You Know God?
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Several years ago, Vickie and I visited a church in a city in which we were vacationing. As with most churches, they had time to stand and greet each other.
That's when this man came up to me and said, "You don't know me, do you?" And he said it in a way that assumed I should. I looked closer but my mind was blank on either face or name.
I finally sheepishly had to say, "I can't say that I do."
So, he introduced himself to me. He was someone I knew from high school and knew quite well. But time had changed him entirely.
I suspect that in churches all over the world, God comes up to people and says, "do you know me?" And, we might say, "of course, I do. I've known all about you my whole life. Why do you think I am here?"
And God might respond, "can you prove it?"
It is easy for us to think we know God. But familiarity and knowledge are not the same things, or at least the kind of knowledge John speaks of in the second chapter of 1 John. He wants us to take a good hard look, not to memory but to life to see if we know God or not.
And it is both harder and easier than we think.
What Is Knowing God?
What Is Knowing God?
John deals with a problem. John has already taught about walking in the light. For him, that means they know the God who is light. People claim to know God. Do they really know him. Twice in verses 3-10, John has that simple condition, "some might say" or "some claim."
Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.
Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness.
The claim is not the same as reality.
What is "know" in this passage?'
It has been hijacked by the false teachers who we will call the "knowers." Their claim is because they have received some "secret knowledge" and therefore, they are the only ones that know God. They are exclusive. They are immoral. They are haughty.
Yet, they claim to know God. And, how do you dispute that?
We have the same problem but not in the same way. Many claim to know God.
We confuse knowledge about God with knowing God. While an encyclopedic view of God might be helpful, someone with a degree can become a complete non-believer. We can know the names God goes by in Scripture, know where he contacts men in history. We can pass a Bible class test with flying colors.
In Matthew 7, Jesus tells a small story of the judgment. In it, men come before God's thrown making all kinds of claims.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
For those who know God so well, God did not know them. They were strangers to him.
But John still wants to know. Do you know God?
That's because John's knowledge of God is far different than the average definition. Instead of facts, he is looking for something deeper--a relationship with God.
In Western culture, we have adopted an educational model. When we say we know, people want to know “what” do you know? It focuses on information and facts and reasoning. If you get the syllogism correct, you must know.
The world of the Bible was steeped in another pattern. It was based on the Jews from which the church came. To understand “know,” you must go back to the Jewish conception.
While there are many passages, one is well-known and defines it best.
It comes at the dawn of creation. God creates Adam and Eve and places them in Eden. Sin enters, and suffering and sin is unleashed.
In the shadow of that great fall, we find propagation.
“Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.”” (Genesis 4:1, ESV)
While some translations translate it differently, some, such as the ESV render the Hebrew word as it is. Adam “knew” his wife. He did not gain more facts about whether she liked figs or dates better. It is a word of intimacy, contact, closeness.
While the physical act is spoken of, the overarching concept of intimacy held sway in Hebrew thought. When God knew his people, he had a closeness, a bond.
We can know people intellectually that we don’t really know. We never met them. But best friends “know” each other.
My father worked as a federal auditor for his job. When he became the regional inspector general for Health and Human Services, his job required him to travel and met officials. Some were bureaucrats but many were governors, Congressmen, or Senators.
On one trip, he went to Baton Rouge and met with the governor of Louisiana.
My brother was fascinated but skeptical. So he decided to find out how much he “knew.” He ask, “do you know him?”
My dad replied, “Yes, I know him.”
“Does he know you?”
“Yes, he knows me.”
Then my brother drilled down to the brass tacks. “If he saw you on the street, would he call you Joe?”
There is knowing and then there is knowing. One is information and acquaintance. The other is much closer.
For John, the claim of knowing God was not enough. He demanded proof.
What’s the Proof of Knowing God?
What’s the Proof of Knowing God?
The problem with a claim is that it can be subjective.
How do you know God? I just do. I have this warm feeling in my heart?
How do you know God? I do. I come to church every Sunday.
How do you know you love God? I do. I have a Bible.
All may be part of the equation but John wants something deeper, more tangible, able to be examined.
If walking in the light changes you, it provides the proof of knowing God.
Obedience to Command
Obedience to Command
The first comes in chapter 2 and verse 3.
We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands.
John says that one of the measures of knowing God comes in obedience.
You can see some people making faces. Obedience? That’s so legalistic, so mechanical.
Not for John. It is anything but mechanical.
Remember, John was battling teachers who claimed to know while lives of filth trailed behind them.
This ongoing change of life was reflecting in doing what God said to do.
The problem with obedience is it comes in two flavors.
One is the white-knuckled approach. We grit out teeth and do it because we have to. We don’t like it. We would love to do anything but. But…we comply. Right down to the letter. We are precise while maintaining a sourness.
The other is that which trusts God to love us enough to do what is in our interests. We may not know what is best for us, even though we believe we do. True obedience sees God as caring enough to guide us in the right road.
In the fifth verse, John shows us it is this second type he is discussing.
But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him:
The word “complete” gives a fuller picture. In other places, it is rendered mature or fulfill.
When something is fulfilled, it literally is filled to the brim.
Obedience, the heartfelt desire to do what God wants brings our love to God to the very top of the glass.
I think of John 21 in this passage.
It is morning on a beach and a charcoal fire fills the air with its distinctive woody aroma. Sitting there are man roasting newly caught fish over the fire. One is Jesus and the other is Peter.
There is an awkward silence between them. Then, Jesus asks a question, one that must have hung heavy in the air. “Peter, do you love me?”
Peter can only stammer “Lord, you know I love you.”
But Jesus is not satisfied with that kind of superficial answer. He gives commands. Feed my sheep.
This is repeated twice more (to mirror the denials of Peter I will guess). Each time, Peter proclaims his fidelity but Jesus gives a command.
Jesus was telling Peter “I don’t want you to love me. I want you to act out your love in doing what I ask you to do…even the hardest things.”
In fact, John goes to great lengths to make this point. He says what it shows if you don’t obey.
Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.
The claim to know God without obedience makes a man a liar. What he says is not true. And John says, “truth is not in him.” He doesn’t even know what true is.
Sadly, too many people want to know God on their terms without doing what God wants. They show up to God’s door and he cracks it open, peers outside and says, “who are you?”
That’s because one of the tangible measures of knowing God and a relationship with him is following his commands. It doesn’t make you a legalist. It makes you God’s child.
This is the vertical axis of faith. Our relation to God is defined by our treatment of what he says.
But he enlarges this picture because it is incomplete if we don’t reflect another trait of knowing God.
Love for Others
Love for Others
Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness.
Some claim they love God, and are walking in his ways while despising the people who God made.
John uses a strong word. Hate is a terrible word. It seeks to destroy. A person hates when, if they had a choice, they would not exist.
We see this in people.
In the book of Acts, the Jewish leaders “hated” Paul. They took great pains to rid themselves of him. They wanted to assassinate him. They wanted to frame him where he would be executed.
And, they did the same to Jesus.
In one Peanuts comic strip, Charles Schultz voiced the feeling of many people. I love mankind. It’s people I can’t stand.
There are many ways to hate, to erase an existence on earth.
Sometimes, we just think of someone as contemptible or as a nuisance.
Let’s try these on for size. Tell me about the ones you would like to do away with:
Muslims
Racially different people
Democrats
Republicans
People who speak a different language
Illegal aliens.
Now, listen to John again. Do you know God.
For John, he states the positive to this negative.
Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble.
When you seek what is best for others, you love them. You don’t have to approve of them, but must see them as children of God as you are.
Remember the Jewish leaders and their hate? Jesus prayed for the people who put him on the cross. Paul yearned for the salvation of Israel.
Love is hard because we must put our personal feelings aside and see others, not as people we know, but as people God loves.
Jonah is an interesting study of a man whose job conflicts with how he feels.
Jonah refuses to go to Ninevah when God sends him there. Instead, he wants to go to Spain to see if he can get away from God. But God churns the oceans and the only way for sailors, who seem to be more godly and compassionate than the Jewish prophet, their only way to live is to sacrifice Jonah to the waves.
He spends his 3 days ruminating about God and what he wants in the intestinal tract of a large fish. Once back on dry land, God calls him again.
He goes, but reluctantly. The wicked city of Ninevah is in his sights. His message is simple. Forty days and Ninevah will be nothing but rubble. He rubs his hands in delight for the destruction of such wicked people.
But, the king issues an order of repentance. Hearts are changed and God withdraws his hand in compassion.
Jonah is bitter. He has been cheated. The wicked deserve death, not mercy. And God sets about to change his mind.
God’s point is found in the last verse of the book:
And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”
There’s life there, life I created, Jonah. Should I not care for my creation.
Such is the contrast between hate and love.
Which do you have? It will tell you and God if you know him.
What’s the Model for Knowing God?
What’s the Model for Knowing God?
But John doesn’t give platitudes. It is easy to fudge terms.
I keep God’s commands…at least most of them.
I’m pretty faithful on average.
I don’t really hate anyone but there are people that I can’t stand.
I love everybody but....followed by a list of the unlovable.
That’s why John doesn’t give wiggle room.
He says none of the commands to love are new.
Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard.
It’s nothing novel. Its ancient. Trace it back.
“ ‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.
God never has wavered. He gave commands to people since the beginning to show the same kind of love you expect in return. It is a basic principle of God.
Nothing new in this lesson…or is there.
John seems to contradict himself in the very next verse.
Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
Suddenly, the command is new and novel. The difference is it is no longer carved in stone or written on flimsy papyrus. The commandment is embodied in Jesus.
He doesn’t want to quibble about definitions. If you want to know if you obey God’s commands or love as God would have you to, measure your life against Jesus. He is flesh and blood. He walked on ancient roads. I watched him and went with him.
It is not found in a philosophical system the knowers were pushing. It was the opposite. It was God in man-form. We can examine it.
John echoed this in his gospel.
Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.
The reason is clear. If you can see me serving as I did, you can do it. By extension, if in doubt, go back and find out what Jesus did.
How do you obey?
Eavesdrop in the garden.
Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
Did he have a desire. Yes. He would have loved to not face the cross, felt the glass-embedded scourge tear his back, and watch his mother’s tears fall. Yet, he would do as God wish, completely without protest or resentment.
How do you love?
Look at his life.
In John 9, a man who was born blinds became nothing more than the object of a Bible study group. What’s the question of the day? Who sinned, this man or his parents? Peter, why don’t you start off our discussion. What do you think?
Instead, Jesus healed him. The Pharisees found fault with the man and threw him out of fellowship. But Jesus went back to him.
In John 8, a woman has been dragged out of a bed not her own. By who, we never know. Perhaps there was a Jewish leader in the crowd hastily getting his disheveled robe back in order. When they demanded she be stoned, he did not agree or disagree. Just do what the law says. Find two witnesses and let them testify.
It was too embarrassing question that made hands let go of stones. Jesus stood there. He stopped the stoning but he loved her more than that. He wanted to correct her life. Go and sin no more.
Here Jesus brings the two axis of faith together. In relation to God, he was obedient. In relation to people, he was compassionate and restorative.
For John, if there is every a doubt, go back to the one who knew God best and do as he did.
Conclusion
Conclusion
So, do you know God?
No, I don’t think God wants to hear the words our mouths. He wants the life to shout from the rooftops the relationship with God. If it is not so clear as to have no question, it is time to examine life again.
Perhaps we should start with two broad questions.
Where in your life is obedience harder than others?
Where in your life is obedience harder than others?
What commands make your fist clench and your jaw tighten? What have you been avoiding? When we confront our obedience, it has to be stark and realistic.
It is never what you have done but what are you leaving undone.
Who is the hardest in your life to love?
Who is the hardest in your life to love?
Remember the list we made earlier? What’s on your list of untouchables. In Jesus’ time it was Samaritans, lepers, and loose women. Yet, he reached out to them.
Who would you not want to share a church pew with?
Now, do you know God?
Kay Warren went to the poor country of Rwanda for the first time. She had read articles and seen documentaries about the country. She wrote that she was expected to spot monsters who had committed the country’s vicious genocide in 1994. She said, what she had seen in print and in media left her “puzzled and ultimately terrified.
When she got there, she wrote a different story.
Instead of finding leering, menacing creatures, I met men and women who looked and behaved a lot like me. They took care of their families, went to work, chatted with their neighbors, laughed, cried, prayed, and worshiped. Where were the monsters? Where were the evildoers capable of heinous acts? Slowly, with a deepening sense of dread, I realized the truth. There were no monsters in Rwanda, just people like you and me.
And to know God means we have to see God as who he is and the people he loves for what they are.