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Prayer
Since we have started looking at the book of 1 John.
1 John 1:1-4 - John has been writing so that we really know who Jesus is, not a Jesus we made up, but the true Christ.
The Right Jesus Test
1 John 1:5-2:2 - We saw that John focused on removing barriers of our own sinfulness to find fellowship with God.
The Confession Test
That section from the last couple of weeks was more negative focusing on sin and how we should respond to sin in our lives.
But John begins to turn his focus in a more positive direction on what a Christian ought to be like.
John will now make clear how a Christian may have assurance that they have come to know that God is light.
He turns to the obligations of the Christian to love.
1 John 2:3-6 - The Moral Test
Sacred vs. Secular
One giant obstacle to what you’re going to hear today is this...
We live in a society that believes and pushes us to keep our faith in the margins.
“It’s okay to believe what you want on Sunday, but it shouldn’t affect the rest of the week in any meaningful way.”
“Why can’t you just be neutral and keep your religious ideas to yourself?”
This lie is so toxic because it fundamentally goes against the message of the New Testament.
For one, it’s a lie because has the ability to be neutral and objective because we are all creatures of belief.
We are all theologians,
meaning that we are all believers in something and there is no way to separate that from the rest of our life.
The second way this idea is a lie is what I want to address today.
“I am a Christian in my belief system but I lie on my time card at work.”
I’m a Christian in my belief system but I refuse to walk in love with my neighbor”
That seems kind of redundant, “we know that we know Him”.
The ESV helpfully I think brings out what is being said here.
1 John 2:3 (ESV)
And by this we know that we have come to know him...
The knowing that John has in mind here is a present knowing.
The Assurance that Comes from Testing
You should test your life so that you can be assured that you know Him
1 John 2:3 (ESV)
And by this we know that we have come to know him
For John, he is extending to us the assurance of knowing.
“How do you know that you know?”
How does a person know that they have become a Christian?
How does a person come to be assured that they are actually a follower of Jesus?
These are extremely important questions to ask but before we answer that question
Before we answer this, we need to understand what John means by “know”.
This word is used over 40 times in this short book.
This word is used 4 times in this short section.
1 John 2:3–6 (ESV)
And by this we know that we have come to know him
Whoever says “I know him”...
By this we may know that we are in him....
When he uses the word “knowing”, he means more than simply understanding some specific truths
One definition said of the word knowing, “familiarity acquired through experience or association with persons or a thing.”
In the west, when we say knowing, we mean academically understanding some facts.
In our brain, hearing information, processing the information and then we know it.
In John’s day, there was great confidence in human reason.
They believed that they could come to accurate knowledge of all things, including God Himself.
That means that they believed they could come to KNOW God through a process of reasoning intellectually.
Youtube as a fix for everything
Similar in our own day to the way people would say, “do you know how to fix this?”
No, but if you give me youtube and about 20 minutes, I can figure it out.
To know something here is far different from just understanding in your mind.
There is an experiential and intimate understanding far beyond simply our cognition.
As we will see, it’s a knowing that changes how you live.
“How do you know that you know?”
1 John 2:3 (ESV)
And by this we know that we have come to know him...
What are we to know?
Or better,
Who are we to know?
We are first and foremost to know Him.
That is Jesus Christ.
Now when I say that, we are NOT just supposed to know facts about Christ.
He was born of a virgin in Bethlehem.
He is our Advocate in Heaven.
He is our propitiation.
Those are wonderful truths, but just knowing about them are NOT enough.
It brings back to mind what Jesus says in Matthew 7:23.
We see the same thing of the ten virgins...
The same is true of those at the narrow door...
This knowing is not something we strive for, but we absolutely better test to see if we have really come to know Him.
Paul asks the Galatians something very simple about knowing God....
The question is, “Do we know Him?”
There’s the test.
It’s simple.
Plain enough.
It’s deliberately put as a condition for us to hold it out and examine if it is true or not.
How do we know if we know Him?
Now like we have seen before, John gives us a test to see if we really know him or not.
The test should not scare us, it should bring us encouragement.
The Test Failed
The test failed, could most simply be called called “Profession without Obedience”
Profession without Obedience
This has been the failure of many people within our lives.
They profess to know God.
They profess to have a relationship with God.
But they are deceived because they do not keep the commands.
Child’s Need to Clean Their Room
Picture with me a mother telling a child of the need to clean their room.
But the child’s response is, “I will get to it, I am busy singing.”
The mother warns her child to clean their room
The mom comes back to find her child continually singing “Jesus loves me”
Or maybe
The Sheep That Never Listens
Jesus gave a parable in John 10:16
John 10:16 (ESV)
and they will listen to my voice.
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