This chapter begins with John telling his “little children” that if they sin they have an advocate with the Father. Of course, the Father of whom he writes is God the Father, the one we call, “First Person” of the Trinity. And the Advocate is Jesus Christ, the righteous, the Son of God, the Trinity’s so-called “Second Person.”
Now, let’s say someone has committed a crime, and another person has told him he needs God’s forgiveness. Coming to understand that his crime was also a sin against God, and feeling some degree of remorse, he agrees that forgiveness with God would be a good thing. But he knows that he is unfit to approach even to ask for forgiveness. He knows he needs a solicitor. Where can he find an advocate, or mediator, to intercede for him before God? Has there ever been a section in the Yellow Pages of the phone book titled: “Divine advocates?” You people over 50 know you can’t use the phone book to find a list of advocates with God. And a google search will only create confusion. You could ask your cell-mate, but it is unlikely he’s going to help; he’s in the same sinking boat you are. The only accurate source for information and a solution for this need is the Word of God. We must hear John say, “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ…” Isaiah could tell us, and so could Peter and Paul. But a voice must come out of the Word of the Lord to direct us to the help we need. And even then it is only by the instruction of the Holy Spirit that we will understand what we are told.
But John is writing this epistle to Christians – his “little children.” He is writing to “church people,” who have heard of Christ and His various offices as Saviour. That doesn’t mean that everyone hearing or reading this letter has been redeemed and regenerated. But the majority have, and the rest know some of the language and doctrines.
And here we get into the theme of verses 3-6. Twice, John uses a word in verse 3, before using it again in verse 4 and verse 5. If my count is correct, John will speak of “knowledge” and “knowing” about two dozen times in this letter. In the midst a culture of agnosticism and atheism, John drew out the Sword of the Spirit. The word at the core of “agnosticism” is “gnosko” which is the Greek word for “to know.” Agnostics say that we can’t know God, but John says we can and should “gnosko” the Lord. Let’s not forget I John 5:13: “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that he may know that ye have eternal life…” which is found in Christ Jesus the Lord.
Our knowledge of God the Father and of His Son, Jesus Christ the Righteous, is something only God can teach. A mature Christian might be able to help to plant a few principles into someone’s head. But only the Holy Spirit can make those principles come alive in that person’s heart. And it is only in the heart where God is can be known. “The natural man (with his intellectual mind)… The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
Furthermore, this knowledge of God is not an intellectual accumulation of facts and doctrines. For example, we don’t know God just because we think we have come to understand the Trinity. Proof of our knowledge of God can’t be found in the acceptance of the intelligent design of the universe. And the ideas of justice and punishment are not the keys to an understanding that there must be a God out there somewhere.
My testimony may not be the same as yours… But God revealed Himself to my heart before my mind was able to see Him as the Creator of the universe. And it was even later that I could understand that Christ Himself created all things. Christ Jesus was my Saviour before I began to understand His relationship to the Trinity. I was born again, before any of the great doctrines of the Bible began to settle in my mind. And this is the way it always is. There must be spiritual life, before there can be spiritual understanding.
And going yet another step forward: it is not the accumulation of doctrines which PROVES we know God. Being able to recite the Nicene Creed doesn’t make a person a Christian any more than going to church. Knowing a catechism is not the same thing as knowing Christ. So the test of our spiritual life is not to be found in these things either. And here we return to John’s general theme – something which he picked up from the Saviour. “By this shall all men KNOW ye are my disciples” – John 13:35. Here John says, “whoso keepeth (Christ’s) word, in him verily is the love of God perfected; hereby KNOW we that we are in him.” Verse 3: “And hereby we do KNOW that we KNOW him, if we keep his commandments.” Our knowledge of God echos throughout our lives in several ways.
Briefly, let me remind you of the IMPORTANCE of knowing Christ.
“Hereby we do know that we know HIM…” John is talking about knowing CHRIST rather than knowing God the Father or God in general. We will never know anything of the Father except through the Son of God and ministry of the Spirit of God. John overheard the Lord Jesus say in prayer: “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth… I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world… I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me…”
Those first disciples knew almost nothing of God – except through Christ Jesus. And as Jesus said, “THIS is life eternal.” Jesus is “the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the father” but through Him. And no man can know the Father, but through the Son. Saul of Tarsus intellectually knew the God of the Jews, but he did not KNOW God until he met Christ.
I understand that many true believers can be relatively untaught theologically, so they speak inappropriately. But please, I don’t want to hear that you know God or that you believe in God. The devils also believe in God and tremble, because they know Him better than most of us. What I want to know: do you know Christ Jesus; is your faith in Christ; do you love the Lord Jesus. These are the important questions.
And beyond your claim, can you PROVE that you know Him?
That you remember asking Jesus into your heart as a child is not proof that you know Him. That you can quote a catechism, or a dozen Bible verses, are not proof that you know Him. That you can explain Supralapsarianism says nothing about your salvation. There are no scriptures which use these things as proof of spiritual life.
But the Apostle John gives us a practical test right here which does render proof. “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.” And “whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected; hereby know we that we are in Him.” Upon the declaration of the Word of God, I can say that obedience to God is the proof of Spiritual life. Obeying the Old Testament law is not how a sinner obtains eternal life. And fulfilling the words of Christ is not the method of salvation. But free and willing obedience is an evidence of that life and of a person’s love toward the Saviour.
When John speaks of “keeping Christ’s COMMANDMENTS,” he does not use the common word for “law.” In fact, John never uses the Greek word for “law,” even though other Apostles do. I may be mistaken, but that gives me even more incentive not to think of the Ten Commandments here. John is referring to the New Testament instructions of the Lord Jesus. And what are Christ’s commands? Didn’t He instruct His disciples to walk by faith; to believe Him; to trust in God? And how often did Jesus command us to love the right things and to love properly? Didn’t He command us to be evangelical, and to go into all the word preaching the gospel? I suppose we could say that the “Sermon on the Mount” includes much of Christ’s commands. There we have a hundred verses of Christ’s instructions. Should we read through them this evening and ask: “Have you kept these commandments today?” Faith, love and service are some of the highlights of Jesus’ commands. And faith, love and service are evidence that we know our Saviour.
“And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.” Obviously, to keep His commandments, means to obey them; to fulfil their requirements. But it needs to be mentioned that the word “keep,” means more than mere obedience. It means to keep as a guard keeps his prisoner or as the sentry keeps his garrison safe. It is easy to see the idea that what is being kept is important and even precious. Mother “keeps vigil” over her daughter through that night when she has that high fever. And Grandma sits impatiently by the phone waiting to be told that the fever has broken. The application is that we “keep his commandments,” because they are valuable to us. They are valuable to us not just as proofs of our salvation, but because they are valuable in themselves.
John is not talking about a professing Christian who obediently goes to church because it is expected of him. He is talking about a living, breathing saint of God who yearns to do everything and anything the Lord asks. And “he that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” The disobedient professing Christian is a liar. He is a hypocrite, an actor. Studying this word “liar” I discovered that John uses it 70% of those times it is found in the Bible. And the first time is when he records the words of the Lord Jesus in John 8:44 – “When Satan speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” And he says later in this chapter: “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.” The worst of all liars are those who lie about their relationship to the Lord Jesus.
What does obedience do beside offer proof of life? IT PERFECTS LOVE.
This is where the rubber meets the road. There is a small area, maybe 4 inches by 4 inches where each tire on your car touches the road. And that is where all the traction takes place.
In verse 4 John says that someone who claims to know the Lord, but who doesn’t obey him, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. As he expresses the counter point, he makes a significant change. Wouldn’t you expect John to say, the man who DOES obey the Lord does know the Lord and DOES possess the truth? But that is not what is said. The obedient Christian displays, not truth, but love. “Whoso keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected; hereby know we that we are in him.”
Mom isn’t feeling well. After five years raising her family, she had her fourth baby three weeks ago. Dad has asked the three kids, ages 5, 7 and 9, to do the dishes and clean the kitchen before play. Quickly they clear the table and run to the kitchen, with one washing, one drying and the eldest putting the clean dishes in the cupboard. As soon as the proscribed work has been obediently finished, the 5-year-old and 9-year-old are out the door. They have proved themselves to be obedient members of the family, carrying out their assignments. But the 7-year-old, comes back to her mother, and asks if there is something else she can do to help. This is the kind of obedience which not only proves her membership in the family, but also proves her love.
“He that saith he abideth in him (Christ), ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.” The test of our life in Christ, is seen in our living as the Saviour lived. To “abide” is to remain, to hang around, to tarry. But it isn’t just “staying at home,” while everyone else is running outside to play. I implies fellowship, communion, harmony and friendship with our beloved parent.
Perhaps we should go back to the words and lessons of John 15 here. Christ Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.” Isn’t the branch which refuses to abide in Christ a liar and the truth is not in him?
Conclusion:
How can we know that we know Christ? There should be a desire to abide in contact with Him. And being so united with the Lord, there will be a desire to walk, even as He walked. That walk will be seen by others as obedience to His commands. But it will not be an obedience dictated by law. It will be an obedience driven by love.