A new commandment, 1 John 2:7-11

What John has been teaching up to this point is that a life of sin and new life in Christ are incompatible.  He says in chapter 1 vs 6 that you cannot walk in darkness, that means walk in sin, and say that you have fellowship with  God.  He also makes it clear in the next verse that fellowship with one another is predicated on being right with God.

Now that is the positive perspective, being right with God is being in fellowship with God and with one another.  From a negative perspective, John says that sin breaks fellowship with God and with one another.  And sin is defined by the commandments.

You cannot determine sin apart from the commandments of God. Now God did plant in the heart of man a conscience which is supposed to make us feel guilty for our sin, but we can’t actually rely on our conscience to do that, because it’s possible for the conscience to become so callused by sin that it no longer does what it should. 1Tim. 4:1-2 says, “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron.”  So false teaching, demonic doctrines, and the lies of the enemy can cause the conscience to stop working, so that a person no longer feels any remorse or not even any consciousness of sin.

John indicates that the most reliable way we come to know sin is through the commandments. Paul agreed with that principle.  He said I would not have come to know sin except through the commandment.  Romans 7:7 “What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "YOU SHALL NOT COVET.”  So the law is not sin, but the law is good, and the law defines sin as sin.

Listen, it’s important to recognize sin as sin. I don’t think you can be saved unless you recognize you are a sinner.  I think that’s why John deals first of all in his epistle with the issue of sin.  Paul does the same thing in the first chapters of Romans, defining sin.  The lie of Satan is to debunk the law and thereby attempt to nullify sin.  The lie of the false teachers and false prophets abounding in the church in America today is to in effect say that there is no sin, or to legitimize sin, or say that what the Bible calls sin is not really sin at all.  

So starting in chapter 2 vs 3 John shows that fellowship with God is contingent on not living in sin, and that sin is defined by the commandments.  Vs 3 “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, or completed.”  In other words, the love of God is received by us, which sets off a chain reaction in us, that completes the transformation that God initiated in us, which is that we love like He loves us.

So that, to use the metaphysical language of John in vs 6,  we walk as Christ walked. We walk in the light as He is in the light.  We become like Christ. We love like Christ loves.

Now I warned you last time at the end of my message that it’s possible to misinterpret the message of John and get the idea that you had to keep the commandments and try to be a better person in hope that you earn the right to fellowship with God.  But if you do that then you miss the essential point of salvation.  The essential point in salvation is that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And that happens by faith in what Jesus did on the cross as our propitiation, as the satisfaction for the judgment of God towards sin.

That cleansing, that forgiveness of sins, produces in us a righteousness from God, not on the basis of what we have done, but on the basis of what Christ has done. But it also produces in us a transformation; change of heart, a change of our nature, a change from death to life.  This new heart is the key to keeping the commandments.  It’s not just mustering up enough will power to overcome your natural tendencies and become by an act of self will and discipline a nicer person. 

Rather God changes our heart.  He gives us a new spirit and puts His Spirit within us.  The result is that we are a new creation.  We have a new nature, new desires, new attitudes informed by the Spirit of God, so that we might be empowered to do His will.  And so as a regenerated child of God, we are able to keep His commandments because we want to please Him.  The product of our regeneration is sanctification.  We learn to act like children of God.

God spoke of this supernatural change of heart which would come about through salvation previously in the Old Testament.  The first reference to it is found in Jeremiah 31:31, which says, “Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."

Notice that in the new covenant, God not only forgives their sin, but writes HIs laws upon their heart, puts His law within them. That speaks of a heart change, from a heart of stone to a heart that is in tune with God, a heart that loves God, and consequently a heart that obeys God.

There are three references in Ezekiel to this heart transformation resulting in keeping the commandments.  The first is found in Ezekiel 11:19-20 which says, "And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,  that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God.” Then further down in vs 27 God says,  “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”  

So not only is the regenerated man given a new heart, by which he has a love for God and a desire to keep the commandments of God, but he is also given the Holy Spirit, who gives us the power to keep God’s commandments.  We get a new heart, and a new spirit, plus the Holy Spirit to indwell us.  That’s the difference between the old and new covenant.  In the old covenant, they were given the law and the penalty for not keeping the law.  In the new covenant, we are given the law, Jesus paid the penalty due because of the law, and we are given a new heart, a new spirit, and the Holy Spirit to enable us to keep His word.

The last reference to this transformation is Ezekiel 36:26 which basically says the same thing as those previous references.  Ezekiel 36:25-27  "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”

Now that’s such a tremendously important doctrine that God repeats it no less than three times in the Old Testament.  And it’s important to comprehend this doctrine because that truth is the basis for understanding what John is teaching here in 1 John 2.  As we understand that doctrine, we can now read vs 7 and 8 with discernment.  

Listen to vs 7 and 8. “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.  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.”

Without the insight given us through the Spirit as we consider the promises of God in Ezekiel and Jeremiah, we might be scratching our heads over this idea of an old commandment and new commandment.  And perhaps because of that many commentators have tried to find some sort of distinction being made here between the old covenant and the new covenant.  They say that under the old covenant there are given 613 or so laws, but under the new covenant we are given only two; love God and love one another.  And so they seek to explain it as if in the new covenant there are only two, easier commandments that we are obligated to keep, and everything else is just legalism that has now been eliminated by grace.

But that, of course, is the wrong exegesis.  What John is actually saying here is that the difference between the old commandment and the new commandment is simply that there is a new way of keeping it.  In the old covenant there was just the law given, and the penalty given for not keeping it.  In the new covenant, we are given the means by which to keep the commandments.  Under the old covenant, the only incentive was to avoid punishment.  In the new covenant, the incentive is love, which comes from a regenerated heart, and a new spirit, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to help us.  In the old covenant, you were legally bound to keep the law, but you didn’t have the resource to keep it.  In the new covenant, you have the all the resource you need, which is the power of the Holy Spirit in you.

That’s where the modern charismatic movement misses the boat on the purpose of the Holy Spirit.  They think the Holy Spirit is given to give us a feeling, an ecstatic experience which validates that we know God.  But in fact the Holy Spirit is given to give us the power to keep the commandments of God, to be our Helper that we might do the deeds of God.

Notice also John says in vs 8, that he is “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.” Now what is he saying?  I submit that when he speaks of that which is true in Him and in you, He is speaking of the Word of God. Another analogy which we saw earlier in Ezekiel talked of sprinkling clean water on you.  That is another reference to the word of God as evidenced by Eph. 5: 25 “Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,  so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,  that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.”  Sanctification, holiness, which is keeping the commandments, comes as a result of the washing of water with the word.  

So we are able to keep the commandment because we have the cleansing power of the word of God at work in our lives, which John says means that the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining.  The word of God is the truth, is the light, which makes the darkness, the sin and ignorance flee.  Peter speaks of this in 2Peter 1:19 saying,  “And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”  

Peter goes on to say the subsequent verses that the scripture is given by the Holy Spirit. So we see there how the word of God is used by the Holy Spirit to work in us, which in produces good works from us, so that we keep the commandments.

So the evidence that you know God, the evidence that you have fellowship with God, the evidence that you have the Spirit of God, is that you keep the commandments. John has made that very clear. It’s not in some feeling you have, or some experience you had, or some claim that you are on intimate terms with God and He talks directly to you.  The evidence  that you know God is that you walk according to the word, that you keep His commandments.

Now last week we concluded that all the commandments were able to be summarized in what Jesus said in response to the lawyer.  That the foremost commandment was to love God with all your heart, and the second was like it, which was to love your neighbor as yourself. He said, on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.  So love is the summary of the law.  It doesn’t diminish the law, but in fact, it encompasses all of the law, and the prophets, so all of the Old Testament.  Paul speaks of this law of love in Rom. 13:10, “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of [the] law.”  So in both the Old and New Testaments, love is the summary, the fulfillment of the law.

So keeping the commandments, especially the law of love which is the summary of the commandments, is a test by which we may prove that we know God. John gives us two tests, both a negative test and a positive test by which we may know that we know God.  He states the negative first in vs 9 “The one who says he is in the Light and [yet] hates his brother is in the darkness until now.”  John goes back to this metaphor of light and darkness to illustrate our relationship with God.  It’s almost a restatement of chapter 1 vs 6, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and [yet] walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”  So to hate your brother is darkness.  To hate is sin. 

Back in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus equates anger towards a brother with the sin of murder.  Matt. 5:21-22  "You have heard that the ancients were told, 'YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER' and 'Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, 'You good-for-nothing,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty [enough to go] into the fiery hell.”

Now vehemence, or anger towards a brother may be the manifestation of hate. When we think of hate we tend to think of it that way, a violent, vehement, anger towards someone.  But hate is actually broader than that.  Hate may be disdain, contempt.  It may not manifest itself outwardly at all.  It may just be an attitude of contempt for someone, as if they were beneath you, as if they are not worthy of your attention.  That also may be considered hate. 

But I would suggest that hate in the usage of this verse is even broader and seemingly more innocuous than that.  I would suggest that hate in this context may be the opposite of love.  Hate is the opposite of love.  We can see that in the next verse, as John contrasts love with hate.  He is contrasting the man who hates, versus the man who loves.  So hate is whatever love is not.  

That being the case then, it is necessary to define love if we are to define hate.  In vs 10, we have the introduction to the law of love. John says, “The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.”  The word love is from the Greek word agapaō.  It’s a very familiar word for most Christians, I’m sure.  But nevertheless, let me give a synopsis of the word as a refresher so that we might be able to better define what love is not.

Agape is a divine love, the kind of love which God has for the world, which was manifested by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  So this love is a self sacrificing love for another that puts their good above your own. In the KJV it was translated as charity.

In 1Cor. 13:4-7 Paul gives an even fuller account of love, saying “Love is patient, love is kind [and] is not jealous; love does not brag [and] is not arrogant,  does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong [suffered,]  does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;  bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

That sets love at a pretty high standard.  It’s the law of love.  Jesus said in John 13:34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”  Jesus loved us with an unconditional, sacrificial love.  And we are to love one another like that.  We are to love our brother like that.

So based on that definition of love, hate then is what love is not. Hate is not caring about the better good of your brother but only caring about your good.  Seeking your own interests and not seeking your brother’s best interests is hate. Hate is being unforgiving towards another.  Hate is being provoked towards another.  Hate does not act becomingly towards another. Hate is being jealous of another. Hate is arrogance towards another. Hate rejoices in unrighteousness.  Another way of saying that is hate condones unrighteousness.   

So John says the person who says he is in the Light, that says he is a Christian, he is in fellowship with God, and yet he acts in any of those ways which are the opposite of the way love operates, then he is actually in the darkness.  He is in sin.  Love is righteousness, but hate is sin.  Such a person who hates is in sin.  And sin has no fellowship with God, even as darkness and light cannot coexist at the same time.

John continues on that theme in vs 11, saying, “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.”  Sin has blinded his eyes so that he doesn’t know where he is going. I think that’s a reference to what we spoke of earlier about the conscience being calloused, being seared continuing in sin.  Notice here John speaks of not only being in darkness, but walking in darkness.  That’s a continuing life style.  To continue in sin is to harden your heart, sin builds up a callous on your heart which keeps you from feeling remorse or guilt.  And so in their sin, their heart becomes hardened, calloused, and they continue on in the way of darkness, believing a lie, and not knowing that where they are going is the path of destruction.

But in contrast to the person who hates, John presents the person who loves in vs 10. “The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.”

To abide means to continue, to dwell in the Light.  This is fellowship with God. To be in the Light, and to dwell in the Light.  It’s to walk in the light.  And we do this by walking in the word. Psalm 119 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”  To walk according to the word is to walk in the Spirit.  This is how we stay close to the Lord.

And because we are in fellowship with God we love our brother.  We love because He first loved us. Abiding in the Light produces love towards one another.  Love is the manifestation of our faith.  It’s the product of our love for God.  Jesus said if you love Me, then you will keep My commandments.  

And abiding in the Light and loving one another, gives no cause for stumbling in us.  What that means is our life is not a stumbling block to one another.  Because love is giving preferential treatment to another.  It’s not holding a grudge, it’s not being jealous.  All those things Paul says love is not back in 1 Cor. 13, those are things that end up being a stumbling block to the other person.  A stumbling block causes them to fall into sin.  Being a stumbling block to others is the result of hate. Its the result of selfishness, not love.  But when we love the way Christ loved us, then the stumbling block is removed.  And the other person is edified.  

So if we abide in the Light, we love one another, and do not put a stumbling block in front of them by our behavior, but we actually encourage and strengthen and edify one another.  That is the fulfillment of the law, and that is the evidence that we are in fellowship with God. I pray that you are walking in the Light, as He is in the Light.  That you walk by the Spirit, and in the power of the Spirit within you are being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ as we obey Him, and keep HIs commandment to love one another, even as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her.

The positive proofs of knowing God, 1 John 2:3-6

As we continue in our study of 1 John, we are looking at line of reasoning which John has been presenting concerning the reality of our faith.  The great concern of his as he is writing this epistle has been the false teaching that has arisen in the church.  That false doctrine is what is called Gnosticism.  Gnosticism comes from the Greek word ginōskō which means to know.  John uses the word know 26 times in this epistle, and introduces it in the verses we are looking at today in vs 3-6.  For instance, John uses it twice in vs 3, saying, “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.” 

Now in the previous chapter, John identified three ways in which one professed to know God, but in actuality they showed by their actions that they did not know God. He said in vs6, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and [yet] walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; …and in vs 8 “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.” ... and in vs10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.”

Now in chapter 2 vs 4, John adds another false claim to know God, saying, “ 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.”  Once again, as in the previous three, the claim is of an intimate knowledge of God which is not supported by one’s actions or behavior.

So one of the positive things that John is doing here is giving us assurance of our salvation.  But at the same time, on the negative side, he is revealing the false claim of the imposter, or someone who is really not a Christian.  And this is important in our day, just as much if not more than it was in John’s day, because in our culture there are many, many people that claim to know God, claim to be Christian, and yet their lives are evidence that what they claim is not true. John says if they say they know God and not keep His commandments then they are a liar. 

You know, our Christianity is not evidenced by what church we belong to.  Our Christianity is not evidenced by how many Bible studies we attend a week.  Our Christianity is not evidenced by what spiritual gifts we may exhibit.  Our Christianity is not evidenced by whatever theological degrees we may hold. Our Christianity is evidenced by our obedience to God.

Now in chapter one, the emphasis John made was on the claim of knowing God and yet practicing sin being incompatible with being a Christian. If you claimed to know God, but lived a life in which you practiced sin, then John says categorically, you are a liar and the truth is not in you. You may say you are saved, but you are deceived.  You may say that you know God but you do not.  You may say that you know the word of God but the truth is not in you.  John is pretty direct about that.  The proof is in the pudding, as they say. A Christian cannot, will not, live in sin, and if you do, then John you are not a Christian, period.

But in this chapter, John shifts gears somewhat.  He says, a Christian is not just known by what they don’t do, but what they do.  You know, when I was growing up, we used to sometimes hear this expression, “I don’t smoke, and I don’t chew, and I don’t go with girls that do.”  I guess down in the part of North Carolina I grew up in, we had a problem with girls chewing tobacco. I don’t know how the expression came about really. Maybe it was the lyrics to an old song, I don’t know.  But the thought behind it was that good Christians didn’t do certain things.  And sometimes that list was pretty long.  In the church I grew up in, we didn’t go to movies, we didn’t listen to rock music, we didn’t go to dances, men didn’t wear long hair, and  we didn’t smoke, drink, or chew tobacco.  And unfortunately, we oftentimes validated our Christianity by whether or not you kept that list.  

So rather than just saying what a Christian doesn’t do, in this passage John introduces some positive proofs of Christianity. He says this is what a Christian does. A Christian does not practice sin, but a Christian practices righteousness.  So John provides certain positive tests to our claim of knowing God.

Now these are tests by which we show we know God, not the means by which we come to know God.  We know that salvation is by grace, it is the gift of God. We know that we receive eternal life through the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ who died for sinners, and that gift of eternal life does not depend upon our good works, or by our attempts at righteousness, but simply by the free gift of Christ’s righteousness which is reckoned to our account. So we are not saved by our works. But make no mistake, the miracle of grace produces a change in us. The miracle of grace produces a conversion, a transformation in us.  So that I no longer am the same man I used to be.  But by believing in what Christ has done for me, I am born again, I am a new creation.  And so because I am a new creation, I have a new way of living.  A lot of preachers emphasize that because of grace we show gratitude.  And yes, of course we should.  But that is not entirely it.  What happened is that the grace of God changed me. The gift of God changed my heart, it changed my desires.  I no longer lust after the things of the world, but I love the things of God.

Consequently, because I am a new creation, I have a new behavior.  So that John can say in vs 3, “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.”

Now let’s break that down a little bit. John says,  “By this we know that we have come to know Him.”  If you look at that statement, you have to recognize that the apostle believed it was possible to know God, and secondly, he believed it was possible to know that you know. In other words, it is possible to know God, and it is possible to have assurance of that knowledge.

So how may I know that I know him? Because I had some experience? No. Through signs and wonders? No. Through speaking in tongues? No. Through hearing voices from heaven or because God supposedly spoke to me? No, John says it's we have assurance that we know God because we keep His commandments.

The word keep in the Greek is tēreō.  It was a word often used to speak of a sentry or a guard,  so it suggests that we should be on guard to obey God's will.   Strong’s definition of “tereo” is to attend to carefully, take care of, to guard, to observe.   That reminds me of the way God spoke of His commandments to the Israelites in Deut. 11:18-21 God said, "You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,  so that your days and the days of your sons may be multiplied on the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens [remain] above the earth.”  That’s the idea behind keeping the commandments, or keeping the word of God.

So what John says simply, "I may know that I know him by the practical test of obedience to the commandments.” Now remember, the basis for our salvation is found in vs 2, Christ is the propitiation for our sins. And we receive forgiveness and His righteousness by faith through grace. But the evidence of our salvation is found here in vs 3, if we keep His commandments. We're not saved by obedience, but our obedience evidences the salvation that we genuinely have.

The question arises then, what are the commandments? I can’t help but think that just asking that indicates a desire on our part to escape any obligation on our part, doesn’t it?  That’s what the rich young ruler asked.  Remember the rich young ruler came to Jesus and said, ““Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” And Jesus said, “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” And the rich young ruler replied, “Which ones?”  That question reveals his heart, doesn’t it? All the commandments of God are good. Paul said the law is good.  They all must be kept. 

John helps us to understand this principle  in vs 5. Notice in vs 5, John says, "whoever keeps His word.” Now up to this time he has been saying whosoever keeps His commandments.  Now he shows that the “word” is interchangeable with “commandments.”  So, he is speaking of more than just the 10 commandments. He is speaking of keeping the word of God, which encompasses the whole Bible, both Old and New Testaments.

But let’s try to summarize the commandments of Christ.  We can find a succinct statement by Christ to that point in John 15:12.  Jesus said, “This is my commandment, That you love one another, as I have loved you.”  Now at first glance that sounds simple enough, but it’s actually a lot more comprehensive once you consider it.

There was a lawyer who came to Jesus to test Him and he asked of Him the question, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “ ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” 

Now the point I want to emphasize there is that these two commandments encompass the entire law.  It’s not that we don’t consider the rest of the law because we only have these two that are in effect in the new covenant.  But it means that all the law can be summarized in these two.  

For instance, if you love your neighbor you will not commit adultery with his wife. If you love your neighbor you will not steal from him.  If you love your neighbor you will not covet what he has.  As Paul said in Romans 13:10 “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of [the] law.”

Love isn’t some new law, it’s the same old law.  It’s just a new way of looking at the law. John goes on to say in vs 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.”  And as John gets further along in his letter, he is going to say a lot about the law of love, and how we need to think about it.  Love is not sentimentality, it’s not an emotional response, it’s not even predicated on whether or not you like someone, or whether or not you are attracted to someone.  Love is what you do for someone, how you act towards someone.

So John presents this truth of how we know that we know God by both a negative statement and a positive statement.  It’s one sentence, split over two verses.  Once again the translators did a disservice in their numbering of verses.  John gives the negative part of the statement in vs 4 and continues in vs 5 with the positive part of the statement.  “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.”

Once again, notice the correlation between the commandments and His word.  John makes them synonymous.  But then notice he says the person who keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected.  Now what does he mean by perfected?  Does this mean that we should reach some level of perfection where we no longer sin? Is it possible for a Christian to be perfect? 

Well, John answered that in the last chapter saying,  “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.” So perfected doesn’t mean obtaining perfection, but rather completion.  The word translated perfected would be better translated completed.  And what that refers to is this.  John said in 1John 4:19 “We love, because He first loved us.” Because God first loved us, it produces love in us. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” But then a few verses further Jesus says what the love of God produces in us in vs21 "But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God."  That indicates that the response of the new life is a new way of living, a life in which our deeds are manifested as having been wrought in God.”  It’s like a circle, we love, because He first loved us, and that love changed us, so that we have His desires and do His will, and His will is that we love one another.  Our response of love completes what God initiated.  So “whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected.”

Then in the second part of vs 5 and continuing through vs 6, John gives the second way we have assurance of our salvation.  He says, “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.”

It’s interesting that John changes the paradigm from knowing God to being in God. To be “in Him” is a curious expression, but one which refers to having our life in Him.  We are made alive in Him, we are made righteous in Him, we have eternal life in Him. It refers to our union with Christ. He is our federal head. In Him refers to Christ being our representative, our substitute, our propitiation, which was talked about in vs 2. We are joined to Him, in much the same way that a husband and wife are joined together in marriage so that they become one.

Paul speaks of being in Christ in 2Cor. 5:14-15, 17 “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died;  and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. ...  Therefore if anyone is in Christ, [he is] a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” So we died with Christ, we live in Christ, so that our works  are wrought in Christ. To be in Him is what it really means to know God.

Notice also that John uses the word ought in vs 6. He says “the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.” Ought is a good old fashioned word that means a moral obligation. Isn’t it funny that John doesn’t distinguish between love and ought, or you might say between love and duty or responsibility. 

You know, I love my wife.  So I married my wife because I love her.  I stay married to her because I love her. I’m faithful to her because I love her.  Some mornings when I wake up I don’t feel very loving. But simply because I don’t feel love doesn’t mean I am no longer married to her.  It doesn’t relieve me of my vow to God to love her until death do us part. I have a responsibility to love her, to treat her as I would like to be treated, to do what is best for her. Love is a commitment that is not dependent upon how I feel, but on how I treat her.

So the claim: he who says he abides in Him.  The responsibility: “ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.” To walk indicates behavior.  Our behavior should be the same as the behavior of Christ.

I’ve quoted from Peter in regards to this topic many times.  Peter was a person who knew the Lord, but he also knew what it meant to walk after the Lord.  He knew that there was a cost to following Christ.  He knew there was a sacrifice in following Christ.  But even better, Peter knew that there was a great reward in following Christ. Peter says in 1Peter 2:21 “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.”  The Greek word used there for example is hypogrammos, which was a writing tablet used to teach children the alphabet.  They would trace over the letters in order to learn how to write.  That’s what it means to walk as Jesus walked. To imitate Christ in our daily lives.

I shouldn’t have to detail for you the way Jesus walked.  But I can tell you this; there was no fault found in Him.  He broke none of the laws of God, and in fact, He fulfilled the law.  He followed the Father’s will explicitly in every respect.  He was the spotless, blameless, Lamb of God. And we are to follow Him so closely that we imitate Him, we mirror Him, we reflect Him to a watching world.

So John gives us two assurances of our salvation. One,  we can know that we have come to know Him if we keep HIs commandments.  And second,  we can know that we are in Him because we walk as He walked.  If that is true in our lives, then we have assurance of our salvation.  But it’s also a test, isn’t it?  It’s the evidence of our salvation by which we examine ourselves.  If we do not keep his commandments, then we are a liar. If we do not follow Him, then we do not know Him.  You can’t claim to know God if the evidence of your life does not show it. 

I urge you therefore today in light of this truth from God’s word that you examine your faith in regards to these tests of our faith.  Jesus said you will know them by their fruits.  Is there fruit of your faith that gives evidence to a new life in Christ? If not, then I urge you to call upon Jesus to save you, confessing Him as Lord of your life, and surrender to Him that you might be remade, converted, transformed into a child of God.  Today is the day God has given you to turn to Him.  Do not let this invitation to know God pass by without your commitment today.

Christ our Helper and Propitiation, 1 John 2:1,2

At the time of the writing of this epistle, this letter to the churches, John is about 90 years old.  His writing, which is inspired by the Holy Spirit, is brilliant.  His writing is pure, divine truth. He pens one statement of absolute truth after another, in a cyclical fashion, each statement building upon the other, oftentimes restating the same truth but from a different perspective.  It is really brilliant stuff that deserves our careful study and contemplation.  And it must be careful study, because even though every word that he writes is inspired truth, there are certain statements that if considered in isolation, taken out of context with the whole of his writing, can lead a person into false doctrine.

And that is exactly what John is writing to avoid.  In the seventy years or so since Christ’s ascension, the church had gone adrift from the sure anchor of the gospel.  The church had suffered many attacks from false teachers and false doctrines that threatened to shipwreck the faith of many. It doesn’t take a seismic change in doctrine to lead one to spiritual shipwreck.  It may only take what seems to be a minor change of course to lead one further away from the truth and eventually cause shipwreck.

Now John wrote this epistle he says in the first few verses of chapter one, that we might have fellowship with God and with Jesus Christ His Son, and that our joy may be full.  That is the purpose of the gospel, that we might know God, to be known by God, that we might have life in Him, that we might have fellowship with Him, and that our joy might be full. 

Then in chapter 2, vs 1 John says that he is writing that they sin not. And at the end of the letter, he says that he is writing that they might have eternal life. It’s interesting to note how all of these purposes work together, synchronistically. Our fullness of joy comes from our fellowship with the Father. Our fellowship with the Father is dependent upon our being cleansed from sin. And so, he now writes to them that they sin not.  Because sin breaks that fellowship we have with God, and that results in a loss of our joy.

So the area in particular that John is concerned about is sin.  He reveals sin as a hidden reef which threatens our faith, that robs us of fellowship with God, and takes away the joy of the Christian life. You know, the enemy tries to tell us that sin is not really a problem.  That sin isn’t really sin.  Or that God doesn’t really care about sin.  Or that you can live in sin and still have fellowship with God. But John argues conclusively in chapter one that such thinking is a lie.

For instance, in the previous chapter, John said this is the message, that God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.  Darkness is a metaphor for sin.  God is pure, God is holy and righteous, and there is no sin in Him at all.  God cannot tolerate sin.  God cannot condone sin.  He cannot have fellowship with sin.

So based on that truth about God, John says that you can’t walk in darkness and have fellowship with God. You can’t live in sin and have fellowship with God.  Sin breaks fellowship with God.  1John 1:6 “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and [yet] walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”  Sin prohibits our fellowship with God. By living in sin, we quench the Holy Spirit.  And God says His Spirit will not strive with man. God is light, and He cannot participate with darkness.  He cannot abide with sin.

John goes on to show the nefarious ways in which the enemy tries to get us to accept sin and think that all is well.   The enemy tries to get us to say we have no sin. To get us to think that we are somehow not guilty of sin. The law doesn’t apply to us so sin is not a problem.  Or to just ignore the problem of sin altogether.  Sin is never addressed in a lot of churches today.  God is love, and that is all that they want to focus on.  But John said in vs8, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

Instead of ignoring sin, or saying that sin is not an issue, or saying that we have no sin, John said the way to have fellowship with God is to confess your sins.  “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Another way that Satan tries to deceive and cause a broken relationship with God is to say that sin isn’t sin.  Something that you like, something that you think will make you happy, but which the word of God says is wrong, you say this favorite thing of yours is not sin. You over rule God’s word.  And that’s exactly what John says in vs 10, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.”  You have put yourself in the place of God and decided that what you want to do is not sin.  Obviously, the word of God is not in you because the word of God says that it is sin, and you say it is not sin. Once again, the result is the same, you are abiding in sin, and because of that you cannot have fellowship with God.

Let’s think of it this way.  Imagine you are learning to play the piano.  The teacher provides you with a piano that is in tune, it’s perfectly capable of playing the greatest songs ever written.  And she gives you a music sheet with all the notes written out of a beautiful song that you are supposed to learn.  And she tells you to learn to play that song perfectly.  Now to do that, you must practice.  In the process of practicing, you are going to make mistakes, aren’t you? But the key to learning to play the piece is not by pretending that the notes don’t matter.  It’s not learned by hitting the wrong notes and just continuing on as if nothing happened. It’s not learned by playing any notes that you want to play if you think it sounds ok.  The way to learn is to recognize the correct notes, and to recognize when you don’t play the right notes, and to correct it. That’s a poor illustration of what it means to recognize and confess your sin. That is what John refers to in chapter one as practicing the truth.  To practice the error is to walk in darkness, but we confess our errors, we confess our mistakes, and practice the truth.

So the goal of the Christian life that John wants to emphasize is that you should not sin.  He says in vs1 of chapter 2, “Little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin.” That is the goal. That is the standard.  As 1 Peter 1:16 says, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.”  We are to be conformed to Christ’s image, to walk as He walked, to follow in HIs steps. 

Eph. 1:4 says, “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.”  Ephesians 5:25 says, “Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.”

God wants us to be free from sin so that we might have fellowship with Him and have fullness of joy. So make no mistake, God doesn’t want us to sin, He doesn’t want us to accept sin as a fact of life that we can’t really do anything about.  He doesn’t want us to condone sin and say it’s ok.  He doesn’t want us to ignore sin or try to act as if we don’t have sin.  God wants us to be free from sin, but if we sin, He wants us to deal with it so we can be cleansed from it.

God doesn’t say He doesn’t want us to sin because He doesn’t want us to have fun.  That’s what the devil tries to tell us.  Sin looks like fun.  In fact, sin sometimes is fun, but only for a season.  God isn’t concerned with limiting your fun, God is concerned with a life of joy.  Joy is eternal, fun is temporary. You can go out partying with your friends and start drinking and you may have a lot of fun for the evening.  But it doesn’t usually end well.  I was thinking yesterday of a friend I know that has recently reached the breaking point in alcoholism. Drinking was a lot of fun when he first started out as a young man. But over the years, drinking has taken it’s toll.  He has now lost his family, ruined his health, suffered so much loss.  Drinking is not fun anymore.

So John is writing unto them "That you may not sin.”  That’s the goal. That’s God’s standard for fellowship, for joy.  That’s the divine ideal.  But the fact is that no one is able to attain to it perfectly.  Sanctification is the process of being holy, but it is a process that will not attain perfection until Jesus returns. 

In the prayer of dedication for the temple, Solomon prayed in 1Kings 8:46 that God would answer their prayer, “When they sin against You (for there is no man who does not sin).”  And in Ecclesiastes 7:20 it says, “Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who [continually] does good and who never sins.” And we should all be familiar with Romans 3:23 which says, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”  John in the previous chapter said that if we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.

So the fact that we will sin is a foregone conclusion, but that doesn’t mean that we have a fatalistic view of sin, that it is something which we can’t do anything about.  We should all strive to live a life in which we don’t sin. We should all strive to play the notes to the beautiful song that God has written for us, so that we may live a life that is joyful and harmonious with God, and beautiful in God’s eyes. But a lot of times we don’t make much of an effort to do that.  The author of Hebrews said in Hebrews 12:4 “You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin.” In other words, you’re not trying very hard. There is much that we can do to resist sin.  We fight against the temptation to sin on three fronts, from Satan, from the world, and from our own flesh.

In regards to Satan, James tells us to resist the devil and he will flee from you.   And in regards to the world,  1Cor. 10:13 says, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”  So if you fall into temptation it is because you did not take God's escape route that He provided.  You did not rely on the strength of God to endure it or overcome it.  And in regards to the flesh, Paul says to discipline your body and make it your slave, rather than being enslaved to the lusts of the flesh.

So we can overcome sin, we can practice the truth to eliminate sin, but if we sin, John says we have an advocate with the Father.  The word advocate in Greek is “paracletos”. It is the same word that Jesus used when He promised the disciples that He would ask the Father to give them another Comforter.  The word literally means, called alongside to help.  We have a diving Helper.  God doesn’t just tell us not to sin, and leave us on our own to resist and keep from sinning. But He gives us the Helper, the Spirit of Christ, to comfort us, to convict us, to control us, to give us the power over sin.

That word paracletos also can be interpreted as Intercessor.  An intercessor is one called alongside to help, but in the position of a defense attorney. And John identifies our Intercessor as Jesus Christ the righteous.  In the position as an Intercessor, Jesus is not declaring our innocence.  He is not saying that God should not count our sin as sin.  But He is saying, count their sin against Me. Charge Roy’s sin on My account.  I will pay for it through death on the cross. He is righteous, He is holy, He is the spotless Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world upon Himself.  He became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

Isaiah 53:4-6 speaks of this intercession saying, “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.  But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being [fell] upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.  All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.”

And Romans 8:34 asks, “who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”  It is because Jesus is the righteous, Son of God, the One who created us, the One whom holds together all things by the word of His power, the One who is the exact nature of the Father, the exact radiance of the Father’s glory, because He died in my place, because He took the wrath of God upon Himself, I am free from the condemnation of sin. And because I am forgiven and made righteous through Him, I have fellowship with God and the fullness of joy.

If we sin, not only do we have an Advocate with the Father, but Jesus Christ the righteous is also, according to vs 2, “the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”  Propitiation is one of those words that we may hear only in the Bible.  It’s not a word used in common language today. And so it’s not very well understood.  

Propitiation means quite simply Satisfaction.  As I said earlier, God did not suddenly decide to stop counting sins, but He stopped counting them against us that believe, and instead counted it towards Jesus Christ.  But the point made in propitiation is that God must count sins.  If God is just, if God is holy and righteous, if God is the Judge of the Earth as the Bible says He is, then He must count sin.  He must vindicate those who have suffered.  He must punish the evil doers.  And the Bible teaches that God will judge the earth and everyone that has lived on the earth.  Every thought, every word, and every deed will be judged.  God is a God of justice. And justice must be served.  Those who break God’s laws must receive the punishment due them.

In the Old Testament, there is a picture of propitiation that helps us to understand propitiation.  God gave Moses instructions for the building of the tabernacle and later for the temple.  And inside the courtyard of the temple, there was the holy place and inside the holy place was the Holy of Holies.  It was the place that God met with His people, and only once a year could the high priest enter it to make atonement for the sins of the people. The high priest would go once a year to placate God, to satisfy God, to appease God’s wrath against the sins of the people by the sprinkling of the blood of an animal sacrifice on the mercy seat.

Inside the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant.  And inside the ark there was the covenant of Moses,  which was the 10 commandments. I find it interesting that inside the Holy of Holies, there is a box, and the box contains the word of God.  That’s it.  There is no statue, no representation of deity, just the word of God in a box, a jar of manna and Aaron’s rod.  When we want to worship God we don’t go bow down to a statue, or kneel and pray to a statute, but we go to the word of God.  

So the box was made with gold, and the lid was gold.  And the lid on the top of the ark was known as the mercy seat. On each end of the ark, there was a cherub, a cherub made out of a piece of solid gold with its wings going across the lid. Cherubim were angels whose particular purpose was to be guardians of the holiness of God. Above the ark was the Shekinah glory of God, which was the light and smoke in which was the presence of God. 

On the Day of Atonement, the high priest entered with fear and trembling into the presence of God in the Holy of Holies, and sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice on the mercy seat.  The blood covered the law, so to speak.  It was the sacrifice made to appease the judgment of God, to be the propitiation, or the satisfaction,  for the sins of the people.

But actually the whole sacrificial system prescribed in the Old Testament by God didn’t satisfy Him. The sacrifice of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, year after year after year, and all the sacrifices in addition to that, all of the burnt offerings, all of the sin offerings, all of the trespass offerings, all of the other offerings offered millions of times through history never satisfied God. None of those sacrifices ever paid for one, single sin. They all just pointed to the ultimate sacrifice that one day would atone for sin.  And that ultimate sacrifice for all sins, of all people, was made by Jesus Christ on the cross. He was the propitiation, He was the spotless Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.  Nothing else could do that, the other sacrifices could only symbolize His sacrifice.  And His sacrifice was sufficient, it satisfied the wrath of God against sin, once and for all.

The Bible says that punishment for sin is death.  God said, “If you eat of the tree, you will surely die.” Sin entered into the world and then death by sin.  It is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment.   God is just, He is holy.  He is the Supreme Judge over all the earth.  He will not lie concerning what He required concerning His law.  He will mete out justice as demanded by His word.  Jesus satisfied that requirement of the law.

But that satisfaction for sin is applicable only for those who have accepted Jesus as their Savior and Lord.  For those who have not, who reject Christ, there remains the wrath of God. In John 3:36, it says, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; he who doesn’t obey the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abides on him.” The condemnation of the law abides on the one who rejects Christ. If you reject Christ, then the only way that God can be satisfied for your sin is to require your death.

Romans 6:23 says, the wages of sin is death. Thats the bad news.  Then the good news, “but the gift of God is eternal life to everyone that believes. First Thessalonians 1:10 says, “Christ has come to deliver us from the wrath to come.” 

First Peter 2:24, “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” First Peter 3:18, “Christ also died for sins, once for all, the just dying for the unjust.” And then 1 John 2:2, “He is Himself the propitiation for our sins.” He was our substitute, He took our place, and paid our price, that we might have life through Him.

Rom 3:23-26 says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;  whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. [This was] to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;  for the demonstration, [I say,] of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”  God is just, He requires justice, but He is the Justifier, meaning that He has provided a way for us to be justified by transferring our guilt upon the righteous Son of God.

One last point that needs to be made.  John says at the end of vs 2, “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”

Does this mean that Jesus has literally satisfied the wrath of God for the whole world? Does the whole world mean that everyone is saved? Has Jesus  satisfied God’s justice for everybody who’s ever lived? If so, then why be concerned about condemnation? Why all the warnings and why preach the gospel?

The answer is found in Leviticus 16; 17 when God gave instructions about the day of Atonement, God made it clear that the high priest was making atonement only for the people of Israel. The Day of Atonement was only for the Jews.  But he great news for the rest of the world comes to light in the new covenant.  Here in vs2,  John says Jesus is the propitiation, He is the atoning sacrifice, not just for the Jew’s sin, not just for the select ones, but for the sins of the world.  Every person, from every tribe and nation has the offer of atonement presented to him. God has made salvation available to whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved.

I pray that if you have not accepted the free gift of salvation, the forgiveness of sins, the cleansing from sin and the righteousness of Jesus Christ that you would do so today.  Today is the accepted time of salvation.  The inviatation is open and waiting and has been extended to all who will believe. Call upon Jesus today and be saved from the condemnation of your sin, and receive life from God, that you may have fellowship with God, and that your joy may be full.