The Beloved Disiple's First Letter - Pt 5

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. (1 John 2:1–6 ESV).

 

We return to the passage we have read the last few days to explore what the apostle has to say about walking “in the same way he walked” (v. 6). Context and historical background become extremely important if we are to understand the apostle’s message for us from this reading. Remember during the second century, the church of Jesus Christ found itself having to deal with the Gnostic heresy. The heresy of Marcion, which attempted to purge all references to the Old Testament from the letters of Paul and the gospel of Luke, is just one example of the widespread assault of Gnostic theology upon the church in those days.

 

The movement known as Gnosticism is difficult to assess precisely because a variety of different Gnostic groups were active during the early centuries of the church. Typically, all Gnostic believers based salvation on acquiring some kind of secret, “higher” knowledge that was not available to the uninitiated. Though Gnosticism did not emerge in the fullest sense until the second century, many of its ideas can be found, at least in primitive form, in the first century. Interestingly, many early church fathers said that Simon the Magician (cf. Acts 8:9–25) was himself a Gnostic.

 

This epistle makes it clear that certain proto-Gnostic views of knowledge flourished near the end of the first century. In today’s passage, John tells us how we can be sure that we have come to know Christ. Evidently, many of his opponents falsely claimed to know the Lord, and so John had to counter these claims and assure His audience of ways a believer might be confident of his knowledge of Jesus. If we pay attention to these truths we may have a deeper affirmation of our faith as well.

 

Our reading today tells us, in a variety of ways, that we can be sure we know Jesus if we keep His commandments. In John’s day, as in our own, many like to confess Jesus as Savior without submitting to Him as Lord. The tendency of Gnostics to dismiss the deeds done by the body as unimportant as long as they possessed the “right knowledge” made it easy for the false teachers troubling John’s original audience to deny the need to obey Jesus and flee from sin. However, as John reminds us, if Jesus is not your Lord, He is not your Savior. If we confess the name of Jesus without a concern to follow Him, we lie when we say we know Him (v. 4). John Calvin agreed: “We cannot know him as Lord and Father, as he shows himself, without being dutiful children and obedient servants.” Some in church history have advocated perfectionism based partly on verse 5 of today’s passage. 1 John 1:8 will make it clear that this cannot be the case, thus, we must scrutinize our lives to see if we are keeping His commandments.

 

The real key is in our understanding of what John is pointing us toward when he says “Jesus’ commandments.” I would point you to the words of Jesus:

 

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “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 first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:34–40 ESV).

 

It is not a matter of using the Ten Commandments as our checklist. It is our complete faith and trust in Christ. Are you obedient, albeit imperfectly, and are you repentant whenever you do not? If so, you can be sure that you know Him. God does not demand perfection, Jesus has already done that on our behalf!