WELCOME
PRAYER
WORD TO MUSIC
SILENCE
Okay we left off last week talking about verses 1-2 of chapter two where John plainly says:
1st John 2:1 “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
Now he gives us some absolutely priceless apostolic insights – ready? (verse 3)
1s John 2:3-6
Meat
May 1st 2016
3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
These four passages, in my mind, could be almost all a Christian needs to know to be a complete, informed follower of Christ.
Let me explain before we examine them line by line:
In verse 3 he tells us point blank on how to tell – ourselves – if we know God or not
3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
Then in verse 4 he adds an important qualifier, saying:
4 He that saith, “I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”
Then he returns back with a reassurance and a reiteration and says, “BUT . . .”
5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
And then for all who say they know Him and abide in Him and have a relationship with Him he brings one more vital point to the table, saying:
6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM – a description of the saved Christian. All right here.
“How we can know we are His.”
“How we can tell if we are lying about it or to tell if the truth is not in us.”
“Then the means (to again) know we are in Him,” and then,
“what this ought to actually look like in the life of a true believer.”
Let’s go back to verse three and let’s hit each of these vital, beautiful points one by one.
So he began by saying in verse 1 and 2:
“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not (and we talked about that sin, in context, probably meaning to not believe on Jesus as the Messiah and/or to fail to love as He loved. Then John added). “And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
And then at verse 3 a gem of a scripture:
3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
Here is the evidence that we are truly acquainted with him, and with the ways his religion based upon Him.
I like the way four other translations put this verse:
1Jo 2:3 (WEB) This is how we know that we know him:
1Jo 2:3 (YLT) and in this we know that we have known him,
1Jo 2:3 (BBE) And by this we may be certain that we have knowledge of him,
1Jo 2:3 (MNT) This is how we may know that we have come to know Him,
“That we KNOW Him.”
“That we have KNOWN Him,”
“That we may be certain that we have KNOWLEDGE of Him,” and
“How we may KNOW that we have come to know Him.”
One of the most oft questions I am asked being in ministry is, “How can I tell that I am in relationship with Him?”
It’s a really good question because according to scripture there are people who think they are in relationship with Him who have deluded themselves and are not . . . to the point where He will say to them, “I don’t know who you are.”
This fact cannot be ignored. And because it is presented in scripture people read it and fear:
“Maybe I am one of these types . . . so how can I tell?”
The answer – the most straightforward answer – is right here – from the mouth of John the Beloved – and it is pointed right at the heart of each individual:
3 And hereby we do know that we know him . . .
The Greek word for know here is Ginosko, and it is a prolonged form of a primary verb which means to “know” (in the absolute sense) but also has a variety of applications including to “be aware of, to feel, to perceive, to be resolved, to be sure, and to understand.”
I appreciate these variation because in WHATEVER sense it is used it is applicable to the personal witness all believers can have that they at some level or sense know God and Christ (for to Know Christ is to know God and vice versa so we don’t need to quibble over who the Him is in the passage.)
I want to stop a minute and discuss something that we often ignore when it comes to faith and knowledge and truth. Let me go to the board.
Ideas
Beliefs/Doubts
Knowledge
Truth
I wonder if . . .
I believe / I don’t believe . . .
Based on facts I know that . . .
There is no question . . .
EXAMPLE
On Total Reconciliation
I wonder if God ultimately does or does not reconcile all?
I believe/don’t believe that God ultimately reconciles all . . .
I know that God reconciles all . . . I know that God does not reconcile all
This is the truth. Period. Over. Done.
Ideas are vehicles that enable us to traverse areas of terrain from different perspectives. There is nothing wrong with curiosity, challenges, debates, postulations, and alternative views.
God gave us brains to think and reconsider and solve and reformat matters.
Within Christianity thoughts and ideas are often rejected out of hand based on traditions, interpretations of the written Word, and policies.
When institutions have established themselves on a foundation of rules and orders and statements of faith ideas to a great extent must be quashed because they challenge the established order of things upon which the institution was built.
Beliefs and Doubts are responses to ideas or postulations. People either accept them (believe them) or they don’t (doubt them).
Beliefs and or doubts are not founded on absolute knowledge or possessing all the fact of a matter. They often exist more as a result of partial knowledge or some truths and are present due to the wants and desires of an individual (for safety, security, certainty, selfish motivations, fantasy, obfuscation of self). We often believe what we have been taught, what works for us, what allows us to function and we are frequently very resistant to altering our beliefs and doubts because to do so causes discomfort, upheaval, and a disconnect from what we have long relied upon to give us meaning and peace and hope.
For human beings and in most cases, knowing and knowledge is incomplete and based on information and experiences that are to some extent or another limited in scope or depth. As a result our human knowing is typically based solely on the informational sources available and the experiences lived or understood.
A person can know that their car is red and this would be a reliable statement of fact.
But would the car be red to the colorblind or would it still be red if it was under a Jupiter moon?
In this way we can see that human knowledge, while reliable to a certain extent to get through everyday life, cannot generally be seen as absolute.
We claim to know a spouse. But even in the case of people married fifty years there can, due to the nature of change and life, exist issues that remain obscured or unknown – especially under extenuating circumstances.
We conclude that where knowledge can be described in the human realm as certain in most cases this definition is circumstantially assigned and the knowledge we claim here and now may not hold true later.
Truth, however is what is. It is not relative. It is not uncertain. Truth is always truth and unlike belief or doubts or even limited knowledge truth is absolutely set in concrete and is undisputed by opinion, ideas, or limited access to information and circumstance.
Truth is His and He is not only the author of it, He is Truth itself. To know Him is to know Truth – but it comes incrementally and until it is fully present it remains somewhere in between the realms of ideas, beliefs, doubts, and knowledge.
Sometimes human beings tap into His truth. Like real knowledge, His truths are unalterable. They are what they are but it is very difficult to articulate them one to another without error creeping in and altering them to some extent and making them partial truths, errors, and in the end outright lies.
Just as a point of interest I decided to plot out my views on this continuum and see exactly where I stand on matters that people want to castigate me as a heretic.
(LETS TURN BACK TO THE BOARD)
MY PERSONAL “IDEAS,” “BELIEFS,” “CLAIMS AT KNOWING” and WHAT I “MAINTAIN IS ABSOLUTE TRUTH”
TOPICS OF DISPUTE
Ideas
Beliefs (or Doubts)
Knowing
(based on facts)
This is God’s
Truth
Eternal Punishment/Total Reconciliation
(X
X)
End Times
(X
X)
Trinity
(X)
Word for our day
(X)
Objective vs Subjective Faith
(X)
The Holy Spirit
(X)
World Wide Flood
(X)
New / Old Earth
(X)
“Saved by Grace through Faith to Love by Suffering as Christ according to the Holy Spirit for the Glory of God”
(X)
(X)
Jesus
(X)
Most people take what are actually just their “ideas” or their “beliefs,” and will then claim to “know them,” often to the point that they will go so far as to say that they are “true with a capital T,” that they “have the truth” and that anyone who differs with them “are fighting against the truth” when in reality we are only fighting against ideas, beliefs, doubts, some facts and rarely the whole and sole truth.
The fact of the matter is most people are pushing either their ideas, beliefs or limited knowledge off as absolute truth. Here John tells us how we can know
We might ask, “Why is knowing Him (which in the sense that John uses it means truly knowing Him) important?”
For starters an in association with this passage, it means we are relating to Him, we are understanding Him, we are involved with Him – the living God!
To not know Him would mean there is no reciprocity or insight going on between His being and ours – and therefore we would understand that there is a distance, even an indifference existing between us and God.
To know Him implies interest, love, concern over well-being (from His part) and interest in His point of view (from ours). Where God is concerned knowing is synonymous with loving – for to truly know Him we would truly love Him.
And to not truly know Him might equate to not truly loving Him because we have false ideas and opinions of Him and His person.
Perhaps Jesus said it best in John 17:3, right?
“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”
To not know God and His Son Jesus whom He sent is to live in the dark, and in death as He IS light, and love.
Also, to know God and His Son is to know what they have done on our behalf. That God so loved the world He gave us His only begotten Son and that the Son, who so loved the Father and Us gave His life!
For us! That we might live. To understand this, receive it, is life eternal!
God has long sought for His creations to know Him – above and beyond all other things. It caused the prophet Jeremiah to say the words we have posted on the wall:
“Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.”
What John says here in verse three seems to go well beyond a mere speculative acquaintance with the character and perfections of God. It is a personal witness of knowing God.
And it is validated by one thing and one thing only: “We can know Him,” “know we have known Him,” “know that we have knowledge of Him” . . . IF
(long beat)
IF . . . we keep His commandments.
He does NOT provide for us ANY other way or means. He does NOT suggest our knowledge comes by intellectual insights, experiences, or rigors of self-denial.
“We know we know Him IF . . . IF we keep His commandments.”
This phrase opens us to such a huge topic – especially with people who tend to take His every word in the New Testament, assign it to themselves, and believe that they must live by them to the letter.
Jesus said A LOT of things. In fact, comparatively speaking the New Testament has triple the commands and directives of the Old so if someone is trying to obey everything Jesus or His apostles said they will come under a burden that would make the COI’s burden look like a knapsack compared to a boulder.
And in one way this comparison is true because the New Command Jesus gave (which serves as the masthead of Christianity) to love one another does place an enormous burden on anyone who endeavors to do it without His enabling hand.
But at the risk of being highly redundant believing on Him and loving are the Christian commandments and if a person finds themselves doing these things they will know that He is in them and that they are in Him.
Then John adds:
4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
Now, I am fairly sure that John says this in relation to the Gnostics he’s mentioned but even if this is incorrect it is true:
If anyone says:
“I ginosko Jesus – I know who He is and He is in me – and they do not love as He loved they are liars, and the truth is NOT in them.”
Remember that John is talking about knowing Jesus, in the heart, having Him present in us and how to know that He is present in us.
And he has said that we can know we know Him if we keep his commandments. But then John describes the other shoe, saying that if someone claims to know Jesus but they do NOT keep His commandment they are liars and the truth is NOT in them.
And so we come full circle – believers can KNOW that they KNOW Jesus (and therefore know God and therefore have life eternal) and they can know this IF they love others.
But if someone does NOT love others but claims to know Jesus they are liars and the truth is NOT in them.
(beat)
And I’ve got news for you . . . this is the way we can know that God is in us by and through His Son by and through the Spirit . . . when we love others.
It is the sign and the witness that God is in us, in our lives, and we have fellowship and relationship with Him.
Why? Because God is love. God IS love. So when we love we know that we have God in and with us, simple as that.
Jesus commandment was to love – it’s the new commandment. To not love is to indirectly suggest that God is not with or in us. (listen to verse 5)
5 But whoso keepeth his word (which is to love others), in him verily is the love of God perfected: (and he reiterates) hereby know we that we are in him.
This passage completes the word of Jesus when He said to His apostles in John 14:15
“If ye love me, keep my commandments.” Which was “to love one another,” and “here we can know that God is with us and we’re in Him.”
Many Christians today downplay agape love. They even mock it. Part of this is a reaction to the worlds proclamation (by people like the Beatles) that “all we need is love” (love is all you need).
If the worlds definition of love was properly understood and applied Paul, John, George and Ringo wouldn’t have been wrong.
I mean Jesus commanded it first, folks.
Here John the Beloved (not Lennon) is directly telling us how
“to know that we are Christians,”
how to “know that He is with us,”
how to know “if someone is feigning relationship with Christ,” and
that “whoso keepeth his word (which is to love others), in him verily is the love of God perfected: (and he reiterates) hereby know we that we are in him.
In this last instruction John moves us to understanding that there is an expectation of growth in believers. The way he puts it is that “in us the love of God is perfected” and this is how we “know that we are in Him.”
We might say this another way – Those who keep His Word (or His commands to love one another) IN HIM verily is the Love of God perfected, and once again, “hereby know we that we are in Him.”
So it’s not just loving others as babes in Christ might love others. It’s actually going on and growing in our love to the point “where the love of God is perfected in us “. . . and in the face of such love (we might say) “we know more and more that He is in us.”
What does this “love” look like or how does it manifest itself? I think John tells us in the next verse (which is our last for today) as he adds:
6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
The Greek term used twice here for walk and walked is peri-pateo and it means in a literal sense “to tread all around,” or to “walk at large” but figuratively it means to live, deport oneself, follow.
Live as He lived.
Walk as He walked.
Respond as He responded.
Notice that this has NOTHING to do with ideas or opinions. It has to do with action, following after Jesus Christ (which in the end means exercising or acting out agape love in the face of a selfish world.
It has to do with dying to the will of the flesh and to live according to the mind of the Spirit.
Upon this advanced approach to Christian living we find the basis for the five symbols on the wall – which all describe Christian growth as expressed in extensions of the self to others.
We can start with the most simplistic and work our way up (if you will) and the simplicity is found no better than in the form of the Cross:
The Z:
The X:
The Star of David:
The Fourth Dimension Christian:
Questions, Comments?
Ministry Audition Announcement at CAMPUS (Announce Sunday May 1st and Sunday May 8th )that the auditions will be held on Saturday May 20th from 11:30 am to 2pm.
