Do You Know that You Know?
Rev. Res Spears
Walking in Truth and Love • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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I know that some of you here remember the old game show, To Tell the Truth. For those of you who don’t remember it, let me tell you how it worked.
There were three contestants. Two imposters were directed to lie about who they were, and one central character who was directed to tell the truth.
A panel of judges would hear a brief bit of biographical information from the host that described either the occupation or some special experience of the central character.
Then, they were allowed to ask a few questions of all three contestants with the goal of figuring out who was telling the truth and who was lying.
At the end of the game, the host would call out, “Will the real so-and-so please stand up?” And then, the contestants would split the prize money based on the number of incorrect guesses by the panelists.
Trust me. It was far less complicated than I just made it sound.
If it sounds interesting to you — or if you just want to relive the days when life (and game shows) seemed a lot simpler — you can still find some seasons of To Tell the Truth on Amazon Prime and YouTube.
Now, the original show ran only through 1968, so I was too young to remember it. But I’ve seen reruns, and the whole concept is interesting to me.
Each of the contestants makes some claim about himself or herself, and then the four panelists asks each of them questions to test whether their claim sounds genuine.
As it turns out, that’s very much like what the Apostle John does in our passage from 1 John, chapter 2, this week.
We’re six weeks into a study of John’s three New Testament epistles. I’ve called this series “Walking in Truth and Love.” The reason for that title is obvious as you note the number of times those words are used in these three letters, and especially in 1 John.
And I hope you’ll recall that I said the point of this letter is to reveal what’s necessary for a follower of Jesus to have true fellowship with God on earth.
Jesus said that He came to give us life — and that in abundance — and abundant life can only be had as we walk in true fellowship with God.
In the last couple of messages from this series, we saw that the greatest hindrance to this true fellowship is sin.
But the good news is that Jesus died for sinners and even now stands at His Father’s right hand as an advocate on our behalf. When Satan makes his just accusations against us — “Look what Pastor Res did TODAY!” — Jesus says, “I died for THAT sin.”
But Jesus didn’t give His life at the cross simply so we could be forgiven our sins through faith in Him. He gave His life so we can be brought back into relationship with God the Father, who CREATED us for that relationship.
He died and rose again so we who follow Him in faith can come to KNOW the Father through true fellowship with Him.
Now, you might recall that I said there were likely false teachers in the churches of Asia Minor, who were boasting about some secret knowledge of God.
They seem to have even denied the truth that Jesus is the image of the invisible God — that He is God incarnated in the flesh. They were claiming to know God while rejecting the Son who said, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.”
They were saying, essentially, that what Jesus taught and demonstrated in His life here on earth wasn’t pertinent to a right relationship with God.
We see the same thing in today’s society. We see it in the people who claim to believe in God but deny the historical truth of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
We see it in those who claim that they’ll go to heaven because they’ve somehow been “good enough” to merit God’s favor. We see it in those who are eager to call Jesus a great teacher but refuse to call Him Lord and Savior.
We see it in people who call themselves Christians and yet don’t exhibit any of the characteristics of the one whose name they’ve taken.
And John calls these kinds of people out in this passage. He contrasts the false claims of the imposters with the actions and characteristics of those who truly know God, those who have true fellowship with Him.
This passage contrasts those who can KNOW they are in fellowship with God and those who merely CLAIM they are in fellowship with Him.
Now, remember that this letter was written to believers. John called them “my little children” in verse 1 of this chapter.
So, the main contrast here is between believers who are IN fellowship with God and believers who are OUTSIDE of true fellowship with Him.
But we’ll also see a progression in his argument suggesting that someone living continually outside of true fellowship with God may very well never have been a believer in the first place.
Let’s pick up this passage in verse 3 of chapter 2.
3 By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.
4 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;
5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him:
6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.
Now, the first thing to understand here is that the terms “know Him” and “abide in Him” are both synonyms for being in true fellowship with God, and that’s true throughout this letter.
But, as I said before, in this passage, there seems to be a progression going on. These two terms, along with “in the Light,” which we’ll see in a moment, seem to suggest an advancement along a continuum of fellowship.
Think of it like this: The better we get to know someone, the closer we become, and the closer our fellowship can be.
Knowing God isn’t simply knowing ABOUT God. The Greek word here implies experiential knowledge, not just intellectual knowledge.
By using that particular word, John separates believers from unbelievers by the WAY they know God. He’s telling us that it isn’t enough to simply know ABOUT God and accept the fact of His existence.
In order to have a relationship with God, much less FELLOWSHIP with Him, we must have been brought into His family through faith in Jesus and His completed work at the cross.
In that act of faith, we come to know God as our Heavenly Father. We EXPERIENCE His saving grace and mercy.
And then, through the Holy Spirit given to us at the point of salvation, we receive the ability to have fellowship with Him — a fellowship that wasn’t possible for us when we were still unredeemed sinners.
And, like one of those panelists on To Tell the Truth, John gives the test we can use to KNOW that we know God. Do we keep the commandments of Jesus?
If we keep His commandments, then we can know that we know God. We can know that we have fellowship with Him.
But, like the imposters on that television show, if we don’t do the things expected of people in fellowship with God — if we don’t keep the commandments of Jesus, then we’ll be revealed as liars — the truth is not in us.
That word, “in,” at the end of verse 4 means to be filled with or gripped by something. In other words, the one who doesn’t keep Jesus’ commandments isn’t controlled by His truth.
“If a person says he knows God intimately but is not obedient to the revealed will of God, he is a liar. He does not know God intimately and does not have a close relationship with God. Furthermore, God’s truth does not have a controlling influence over his life.” [Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), 1 Jn 2:4.]
But when we begin to obey God out of a desire to please Him — in other words, out of love for Him — then God’s love for us has had its desired effect. It has been perfected.
Now, the next thing the imposters were saying was that they were abiding in God. That’s the suggestion of verse 6.
Abiding suggests remaining, rather than stepping away from something. So, the idea is that as we come to know God better and better, we are less and less likely to step away from Him, less and less likely to turn to sin.
And that’s the test that John gives in verses 5 and 6 for whether a believer is in a right relationship with God, for whether a believer is in true fellowship with Him.
Do you walk in the same manner as Jesus walked?
Jesus walked in perfect obedience to His Father. He said what His Father told Him to say, He did what His Father wanted Him to do, and He never sinned.
He never stepped away from the path His Father had placed Him on, even when it took Him to the cross. Jesus has always been in perfect fellowship — in a right relationship — with His Father.
And so, if you want to know whether you are abiding in God, then you should ask yourself: Am I following His will for my life? Am I speaking truth AND love? Am I keeping myself from sin? Or do I continually step away from His path? Do I reject what He has called me to do, what He has called me to say?
It’s a sad fact that we can be true believers — saved and redeemed by the blood of Jesus, knowing God experientially — and yet still choose not to ABIDE in Him. We can yield ourselves to the enticement of sin. We can ignore God’s calling for our lives.
When we do these things, we hinder and damage our fellowship with God. Essentially, we reject the abundant life in favor of the good-enough life.
We say, “Thanks, God, for forgiveness and eternal life. That’s enough for me.” And in so doing, we reduce salvation to a transaction.
We say, “I’ll give you faith if you give me heaven. Fellowship with you really isn’t that important to me.” And that makes a mockery of God’s marvelous grace.
So, if you want to know that you know God, then ask yourself if you’re keeping the commandments of Jesus, which are also God’s commandments.
And if you want to know that you are abiding in God, ask yourself if you’re walking as Jesus walked — in continuing obedience to the Father, which again implies keeping God’s commandments.
But what are the commandments? Is John talking about the 10 commandments? Is he talking about the 613 Levitical laws of the Old Testament?
Look at verse 7.
7 Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard.
8 On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining.
I think the key to understanding the commandments John has in view is in verse 8, where he says, “On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you.”
During the Last Supper, when Jesus was teaching some of His most important lessons to His disciples, He said to them:
34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
35 “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
From one perspective, the command to love one another wasn’t new at all. Way back in the Book of Leviticus, God had commanded the people of Israel to “love your neighbor as yourself.”
So what did Jesus say that was new? “Even as I have loved you.”
How did Jesus love His disciples — AND us? Sacrificially. He put His love for them and for us AHEAD of His love for Himself.
And He didn’t wait for them or for us to do anything to deserve such amazing love. As Paul put it:
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
The old commandment to love your neighbor as yourself has a new depth of meaning, a new significance, in light of what Jesus said: “As I have loved you, you also love one another.”
He demonstrated the truth of this NEW commandment by bearing our sins — and their just punishment — at the cross so that all who follow Him in faith can be saved.
And in doing so, He ushered in the era of Light. His life, death, and resurrection brought true light into this world that had been ruled by the darkness of sin.
And even though there is still darkness in this world — even though there is still sin — we have the promise that one day darkness and sin will be no more.
John wrote about this in Revelation, chapter 22:
5 And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.
“The Kingdom of God, [will be] characterized by light and love.” [Daniel L. Akin, 1, 2, 3 John, vol. 38, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001), 97.]
But we don’t have to wait to live in this light. That’s what John talks about in the next three verses of this letter. Look at verse 9.
9 The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now.
10 The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.
11 But the one who 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.
Here’s the third claim made by the imposters. They claimed they were living in the light of God. Remember that this term is a synonym for having fellowship with God, for being in a right relationship with Him.
But John warned that those who claimed to be in the Light and yet hated their brothers — whether fellow believers or simply “neighbors” — were still in darkness.
Now, this word “hate” is tricky, because John came from a Hebrew background. And one literary device that’s common in Hebrew writing is what’s called hyperbolic contrast.
Basically, what that means is that the writer employs an exaggeration to make a contrast more distinct.
Think about what God said through the prophet Malachi about Jacob and Esau: “I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.”
We know from Scripture that God loves all people. He sent His Son to die for us all. And, in fact, He blessed Esau.
But He had a special love for Jacob, and He chose not to allow Esau to receive the blessings he would have been expected to receive as the firstborn son of Isaac.
This verse in Malachi is an example of hyperbolic contrast. And I think the verse in 1 John is another example. John’s idea, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is that to not show love is to hate.
The false teachers and imposters John was warning about minimized the importance of ethical behavior, including the commandment to love one another as Christ loves us.
So, John gives us LOVE as the test of abiding in the Light, of being in right relationship with God.
And the suggestion of verse 10 is that truly following Jesus’ commands to love God and love one another is the surest way to keep from stumbling in your walk with God.
But remember I said there’s a progression here from knowing God to abiding in God to abiding in the Light. And that continually and consistently failing to abide in the Light — to be in fellowship with God — suggests that a person may never have been in relationship with Him at all.
Abiding in the light means leaving darkness completely, because, as John put it in chapter 1, God is light, and there is no darkness in Him at all.
So, what we see in verse 11 is, at the very least, a warning to believers of the danger of failing to love the way Jesus loves.
And there’s a solid case to be made that it’s a description of people who haven’t been regenerated by the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus.
For someone who hates his brother, John says here, there is a downward spiral. He can’t see in the darkness. He stumbles in his walk. And eventually he becomes blind.
As one commentator puts it: “Spiritual darkness is not a passive reality. It goes on the offensive. Darkness attacks those living in it so that they become increasingly trapped in this realm of confusion and blindness. In a real sense what we do is what we become. How we live is who we are. The longer one remains in this realm of darkness, the more difficult it becomes to see the sin that is in one’s life, and the less likely one is to see his need to confess his sins so that fellowship with God can be restored. Habitual hatred leads to more hatred, and the possibility of loving becomes less and less likely.” [Daniel L. Akin, 1, 2, 3 John, vol. 38, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001), 100.]
Think of the Pharaoh during the time of the plagues. He saw God’s mighty hand at work, and yet he failed to acknowledge God and obey Him. And in so doing he hardened his heart against God. The more he denied God, the more he couldn’t help but deny God.
This week, I want to encourage you to become a panelist in your own episode of To Tell the Truth. Do you claim to know God? Do you claim to abide in Him? Do you claim to abide in the light?
Then, ask yourself the questions that test whether these things are actually true about you.
Do you keep Jesus’ commandments to love God and love others? Do you walk as Jesus walked — in obedience and submission to God’s will? Do you remain upright in your walk with God by demonstrating the sacrificial love of Jesus?
If these test questions reveal to you pockets of darkness that remain in your life, then you’ll need to ask yourself whether fellowship with God is really important to you.
But if, in the midst of this self-assessment, you realize that you’re surrounded by darkness, then what you need most is to consider whether you really ARE in a relationship with God at all.
There can be no fellowship without a relationship. And the relationship is available only through faith in Jesus.
The Apostle Paul said, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”
His point was that the stakes are too high for us to fool ourselves about it. And God has been too clear in His word about what it takes to be saved for us to pretend we didn’t understand.
You’re either in darkness or Light. You’re either following the lies of the world or following Him who is Truth itself. You either place your faith in Him or remain lost for all eternity.
Search your heart right now, and tell yourself the truth. Do you know that you know God?
Come and talk to me today, and I’ll show you how you can.