1 John 2:1-11 - Do You Know Him?

1 John 2:1-11

1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

The Test of Knowing Him

3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. 6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

7 Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. 8 Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.

9 He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. 10 He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 11 But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Why did John write this book to us?  The summation is that we know our forgiveness in Christ and in that knowledge strive to sin no more in order to please God in appreciation for this gift of grace that saved us from the due penalty of our sins, both inherited through Adam in our spiritual DNA and in our daily failures of falling short (Romans 3:20, 23) of perfect holiness in keeping His word.  He makes this clear in the first verse of this chapter by telling us plainly that he wrote to us that we do not sin.  Obviously, this does not mean we never sin again as this is not possible, but that we make it our aim and direction of our life to put sin to death by the power and wisdom of His Spirit (Romans  8:13) as we walk on in Christ towards the day of His return.  When we do fall again, we have the promised assurance of forgiveness by Christ Jesus who is our Advocate, our heavenly lawyer who pleads our case for dropping the charges on the basis of His having taken the sentence of our death on Himself to the cross (Colossians 2:14, Romans 5:8, 8:34, 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10) and sentence us to eternal life instead of the death sentence into which we are all born.  Jesus Christ is our propitiation of God’s gracious mercy that triumphed over justice (James 2:13) and released us (Romans 6:22-23) from the bondage of sin and the consequences of it.  If we therefore have been set free and truly know Him, the evidence of that transformation is the willingness and drive to keep His commandments out of thankfulness and no longer as a feeble attempt to earn our salvation or grace in God’s eyes to keep what we cannot lose or have taken away.  The message and end result of the gospel that has been preached since the Fall in Eden’s Garden has not changed; He desire that we trust by faith and obey out of love to be well-pleasing (2 Corinthians 5:9, Hebrews 13:21) to Him as we were created to be and do.  The commandment has not changed, but the motivation from a heart engraved (Jeremiah 31:33, Hebrews 8:10, 12-13) with His commandments enables us to truly understand (Psalm 119:34) and walk out these desires in us to be living sacrifices of grace.  The evidence of His truth and love in us then is the willingness and decisive actions to keep His word.  His love is actually perfected in us as we are conforming to His image by this willingness and resulting fruits of obedience.  We are to live as Jesus demonstrated to us while walking on this earth with us.  This is the same commandment written to us from the beginning before the Law and after the cross in light of Him as the light of the world and eternity to come.  The evidence is our love for God and others (Deuteronomy 6:5, Leviticus 19:18, Luke 10:27) as it is has been written and remains unchanged.  The new commandment then is to do this in sincerity and truth enabled by His grace and Spirit in us to love in truth and not as an attempt to meet a demand without our heart being in it fully.  If we then walk in this light which is Him and His, we love God first and others as well.  We will never stumble and stay down if we know these things and seek forgiveness when we do sin against one another.  If we hate others, however, we remain in darkness and have not know the grace and light of Christ in our hearts and need repentance to life before going further with Him.  We need spiritual eyes as part of a new creation (Romans 6:11-12, 13-14, Galatians 2:20, 5:24) to love and love as we are designed and created to do in His image.  Do you know Him?  That is the crucial question before any obedience is possible.