1 John 2, "Testing Christian Claims"

Lots of people claim to be Christians. Not everyone that makes that claim truly is one. Not everyone who professes faith in Jesus Christ truly knows Him.

Titus 1:16 ESV

They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

Before we judge anyone else, it’s helpful to do some self-examination. All of us have had an experience in the last two years that has caused us to question our own faith. Our culture is being shaken. People of faith are being shaken with it. People are getting sorted out. How can I know where I belong? If I claim to be a Christian, what does that mean for my life in this time and place? If I don’t live up to what I think a Christian should be in a moment of weakness, what do I do then?

John tests three claims people make in regard to being a Christian. There have been a lot of tests this year. What we will see as we go through this passage is that the results of these tests are more relevant than ever.

Claim 1, “I Know Jesus Christ”

John wants us to know that we know Jesus. 2:3, “we are coming to know that we have come to know” - this is a knowledge that is a growing experience. We’re always in process, learning and growing in our knowledge of God. How do we grow? We “keep His commandments”, we “keep His word”. The process is daily practice of God’s word. God’s word is truth spoken in love to guide our steps, usually in the form of commandments. Like a loving father gives his children simple instructions to follow, God gave us commandments.

And Jesus did not abolish God’s commandments. He fulfilled them and taught us their ultimate meaning. God’s word is truth, unchanging truth. Jesus is the Truth incarnate. If we truly know Him, we will keep God’s word.

But there are a lot of people claiming to know Jesus that use the truth as a weapon to beat and destroy others. I was listening to a news story about the recent Supreme Court case about limiting abortions in Mississippi. Obviously there were protesters. And some showed up to holler and hold signs proclaiming that God hates people who support abortion. Does this kind of behavior and attitude match the word of God I see in Jesus? How do I know that my claim to know Jesus and walk in His commandments is a true claim?

2:5, “in him truly the love of God is perfected.”

As I keep the word of Christ, the love of God is perfected in me. That’s quite a claim in and of itself. The question is, what is the love of God that’s being perfected? Is it my love for God or God’s love for me? The answer is probably yes to both, kind of, but…Marvin Vincent:

Word Studies in the New Testament Chapter 2

Love, in its very essence, is reciprocal. Its perfect ideal requires two parties. It is not enough to tell us, as a bare, abstract truth, that God is love. The truth must be rounded and filled out for us by the appreciable exertion of divine love upon an object, and by the response of the object. The love of God is perfected or completed by the perfect establishment of the relation of love between God and man. When man loves perfectly, his love is the love of God shed abroad in his heart. His love owes both its origin and its nature to the love of God.

The love of God for me fills me so that I desire to keep His word, walk in His ways, and learn to love Him. The way John pictures the love of God for us is like a place to dwell. Jesus said,

John 15:9 ESV

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.

Which brings us to our second claim.

Claim 2, “I Have a Deep, Personal Connection With Jesus”

2:6, “Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” Jesus told His disciples that they should abide in Him, and He would abide in them, by faith. This is a union of the believer with the person of Jesus, like a branch is in union with a vine or a tree. This is a deeper level of intimacy and connection with Jesus. This person really gets Him. They’re on the inside, they understand His thoughts and teachings, and are united with His purposes and desires.

John says, if you’re going to claim to have a deep, personal connection with Jesus at this level, you ought to walk in the same way in which He walked. What was that?

Jesus told His disciples that the world would know they were part of the Jesus movement if they loved one another in the way that He had loved them. When we love as Jesus loved, we demonstrate that our fellowship, our personal connection, with Jesus is real.

Jesus loved, so we love. Jesus spoke the truth even when it cost Him something. We do the same. Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God and demonstrated it by healing the sick and casting out demons. We fast and pray, and seek the healing of the sick. Jesus came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. We serve others in Jesus’ name. Jesus walked in self-denial and self-sacrifice, on the way of the cross. Jesus loved, so we love.

2:7, “no new commandment, but an old commandment...”

2:8, “At the same time, it is a new commandment...” Is John contradicting himself again?

The old commandment to love God and love your neighbor had been lost, buried under a mountain of laws that were sucking the life out of people. Jesus came to restore the old commandment in a new way.

Matthew 22:35–39 (ESV)

And...a lawyer, asked [Jesus] a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

What is the new commandment here?

John 13:34 (ESV)

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

Jesus redefined this love. This love comes from Jesus. We love because He first loved us. He demonstrated what God’s love is like. The cross of Jesus, on which He took the guilt and shame of all our sin and put it to death once and for all that we may have life, that’s what God’s love is like.

This is what John means in verse 8 when he says, this is the new commandment that is “true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.” Jesus is revealing the light of the knowledge of God to us. The light of knowing God in and through Jesus is already overcoming the darkness in this world. The process is not done, but it has begun. As Jesus put it once,

John 8:12 ESV

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Which brings us to the third claim,

Claim 3, “I Am Enlightened”

2:9, “Whoever says he is in the light...” This is a claim made by people even outside the Christian faith. In fact, this is one of the main reasons many people never accept the Christian faith. There is something in us that knows intuitively that being enlightened should make you more loving. But I would argue the Christian faith is the only one that truly achieves that. This could be a sermon all by itself. But to put it simply, Christianity is the only faith that maintains the true distinction between God and humans, an “otherness”, and that same otherness among individual people, while also establishing true reconciliation through sacrificial love. All the other religions and philosophies I’ve studied have to do away with one or the other (otherness or reconciliation through love).

But the point is to claim to be “in the light” as a Christian means that there can be no hatred for another person. Nothing has been more tested and tried for us as Christians, as Americans, and as people, this last year. We have seen levels of mistrust and anger toward our neighbors, bordering on hate, if not outright hatred, that I have never seen in my lifetime.

Hatred is blind. It doesn’t account for true understanding of the other person. It blinds you to your own faults and failings. It will leave you in the darkness. And you’ll hurt yourself as much as anyone else. There is nothing worse than self deception. And this is exactly what John is helping us overcome.

1 John 2:10 ESV

Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.

“no cause for stumbling (lit. trap, snare, σκάνδαλον)”. The passage ends on with a warning. 1 John 2:11

1 John 2:11 ESV

But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

The person who claims to be a Christian, a believer in Jesus, that harbors any hatred, is self-deceived and lost. Do you want to be free from the darkness that is all too prevalent? In a world filled with angry, bitter, vindictive people, do you want to experience the freedom of joy, peace, kindness, generosity, selflessness, and fellowship with God? John’s offering us a three part solution along with his warnings.

When we test the claim we make as Christians, there are three ways we can know that we truly know and understand Jesus and are free from self-deception. Do I practice Jesus’ commandments? Do we walk in love as Jesus walked in love? Do I come into the light to root out hatred from my heart?

Richard Wurmbrand was a Christian pastor in Romania in the 1940’s when the Communists took power. The pastors that would not join the movement were thrown in prison. They were put in solitary confinement, beaten, tied to crosses for days, subjected to brainwashing. Wurmbrand says, “And then the miracle happened. When it was at the worst, when we were tortured as never before, we began to love those who tortured us. Just as a flower, when you bruise it under your foot, rewards you with its perfume, the more we were mocked and tortured, the more we pitied and loved our torturers.” They learned to look at men, “not as they are, but as they will be…I could also see in our persecutors a Saul of Tarsus — a future apostle Paul…It was in prison that we found the hope of salvation for the Communists…The gates of heaven are not closed for the Communists. Neither is the light quenched for them. They can repent like everyone else. And we must call them to repentance. Only love can change the Communist and the terrorist.”

Questions for Discussion

Is there anything you put into practice last week that stands out to you today?

What do we learn about people, or ourselves, in this passage?

What are some reasons we might doubt that we really know Jesus? What are some questions you have now about knowing Jesus?

How is it possible that Christians can claim to know a person that lived 2,000 years ago?

What are some practices or experiences that have made you more secure in your faith in Jesus?

What are some things we learn about Jesus in this passage?

Of the three claims John tests in this passage:

I know Jesus

I have a deep, personal connection to Jesus

Spiritual enlightenment

which one seems most relevant to you right now? How does John’s response to that claim helpful to you?

8. How will you respond to this passage this week?

9. Is there someone you could share this passage with this week?