Title: Knowing Him Text: 1 Jn 2:3-6

1Jn 2:3-6 "And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked." NAS

In the Greek what John said is, "by this we may know that we have known him [perfect tense -- something done in the past], because we are now keeping his commandments [present tense]." The present willingness to keep his commandments, is a sign of a genuine relationship. It's proof that an act of union with Christ has already occurred, that you have been born again. Your actions have changed, and because they have changed and you do not behave as you once did but now have a desire to obey him, you can be sure you have indeed been born again.

The Gnostics, those whom Paul would say were proclaiming another gospel, those opposing the message of John, boasted of their superior intellectual knowledge of Christ. John challenges that claim by an appeal to something we have talked about before experiential knowledge of Christ. That experience, that relational knowledge is proved by the desire and intention of keeping his commandments.

Christianity continues to be put down because of what some view as legalism. Legalism in the sense that it is a religion of do's and don'ts, can's and can't's. Sometimes even those who profess to be Christians view their religion in that way. It is true that because of the moral and ethical standards taught by the Bible we view certain actions as wrong and as sinful. There are things Christians simply should not and must not do. There are other things the Bible clearly teaches that we should and must do. The distinction is one of motivation.

You can't know God, that is have a genuine relationship with Him, by attempting to keep his commandments. That's impossible. No matter how hard you try, how observant you are, you can never know God relationally by keeping His commandments. True or genuine knowledge of God comes only by faith in Jesus Christ.

Martin Luther, the father of the reformation, was an Augustinian monk. He tried to find God, tried to know Him, by keeping his commandments. He made a desperate and sincere effort to do anything that he felt God required of him, in order that he might discover and know God. He would beat himself, spend days fasting, lay on the cold floor of his room in the monastery for hours, trying in any way and every way he could to know God by keeping his commandments. He discovered it could not be done, it drove him to despair. It was only when he discovered the truth of Rom 1:17, "the just shall live by faith" that he found God. Then he spent the rest of his life actually keeping God's commandments.

Do you recognize the difference? We first receive Christ by faith, by believing His word, the message of the gospel asking Christ to forgive us and be Lord of our lives. When we do, He comes into our lives through the presence of His Spirit. The proof or sign as John might say of that deliverance is a change in our attitude concerning obedience. There is then a desire to obey God. Jesus declared this truth in John 14:15, when He said, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." And again in verse 21, "He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me;" (NAS)

What Jesus was talking about and what John was talking about is not a legalistic ritualistic adherence to a set of regulations. Instead it is a great desire to obey the Lord born out of a relationship. I can be sure that I have come to know Him if my desire is to be obedient to Him.

Verse 4 says the same thing in a negative way. "The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;" (NAS)

As a way to be sure of authentic Christianity John describes counterfeit Christianity. I read in the paper this week one of the members of the Lincoln Stars hockey team had been convicted in MN of producing and distributing counterfeit currency produced on a home computer. It looked like the real thing and it was apparently accepted by some as the real thing, but it wasn't genuine it only looked that way.

John describes counterfeit Christianity like that. Counterfeit Christians are people who may go to the right places and say the right things and if you don't look closely you would never know they were anything other than what they claim to be. But something is wrong, there is no desire to obey God, rather there is a desire to excuse disobedience. As we saw in last weeks text, there is the desire to cover over sin, hide it. Their lives are unchanged. Paul describes them in Titus 1:16 by saying They profess to know God, but by {their} deeds they deny {Him} (NAS) Charles Spurgeon said "an unchanged life is the sign of an uncleaned heart."

That's not to say that people can't change things in their lives on their own. There are a lot of reasons people make changes in their lives such as for health reasons, financial reasons etc. You can stop doing sinful things without being born again, but you can't be born again without stopping them.  The desire of our heart testifies to the reality of our faith.

John returns again to a positive affirmation of what he has been explaining by saying, "whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected." There is no difference here in the phrases obeying His commandments and keeping His word. The idea is the same, a present desire to be obedient to the will of God is one way to be certain that we have come to know Him.

John says something else takes place as well. If we have a desire to obey, if there is a willingness to do what He says then the love of God gradually takes over our lives and changes us, it is being perfected within us. If we have been born again, if we have received Christ and we are willing to obey him, the love of God is doing something in us and to us. It is bringing us to maturity. Paul said it this way in Phil 1:6, "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." and in Phil 2:13 he wrote, "for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for {His} good pleasure." (NAS)

The Christian life is a relational experience. That experience is a step by step process where we trust Christ and receive His Spirit within us. His Spirit then begins to transforms us. We recognize that transformation taking place because we desire to follow His will by being obedient to His word. That desire leads us to actual obedience, which leads us to maturity, which leads us to greater fellowship as His love is perfected in us and then our desire grows more and the process continues.

John wrote in verse 6, "By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked." (NAS)

The order here is the same, you must abide first then walk. It yesterdays paper there is a book review for a book titled The Gospel of Yeshua. The author calls it "an accurate, although of necessity a fictionalized, narrative of Jesus' life." He is quoted as saying, "It occurred to me that if his (Jesus') teaching was true, then I or anyone else could prove it,. . . [All] we would have to do is live his teaching." The article concludes by again quoting the author: "For most Christians, by far the most compelling evidence that Jesus overcame death is that he is still alive, and anyone who wants to experience him can do so simply by living his commandments and observing the results."

Like much of the postmodern world the writer focuses solely on God's love. Not to negate the impact or importance of God's love, but part and parcel of God's love is it being perfected in us through His abiding presence. Again as Martin Luther found out Christianity is not just about living His commandments but about first experiencing His presence.

It is because of that presence, as we see in verse 6, that we ought to walk in the same manner He did. That means we are to live our lives according to the same principle He did, to reflect the same relationship to the Father He had. Jesus walked in total, unrelenting, unbroken fellowship and dependence on God the Father who indwelt him. We must do the same thing, that doesn't happen by simply living His commandments and observing the results. It comes through an unrelenting dependence on the power of Jesus Christ indwelling us, reproducing within us the value of His death and power of His resurrection. It is a life long relational process.

Are the signs of this relationship evident in your life? What is your desire? Is it to gratify self or be obedient to God? Is Jesus Lord of all in your life?