3 And
hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
By
this we know now, in the present, that we have come to know him, in
the past, with the evidence that we know Him now, in the present,
if, we are presently keeping His commandments.
Now this verse
and the breakdown of the verbs in the verse, makes for some rather
earth shattering implications on the professing Christian Church today
that we all better take heed to. Since what John said was, and is,
the absolute truth, then we had better examine the verse in the light
of what is said, rather than an opinion or some experience on our
part. John states with absolute knowledge and an unchanging certainty
that our so-called conversion experience in the past is only valid
if conversion is demonstrated in the present. Our so-called profession
of being saved in the past is only valid if there are PRESENT
evidences of it being demonstrated in the life of the one professing
to be a believer. This means in all simplicity that if you point to
a time or a place or some experience in the distant past as a means
to justify your professed Christianity, yet, in the present, you have
no evidence that the conversion is genuine, your experience in the
past is also invalid. This is exactly what John is saying in this
verse and what he said is absolute and true today. The sole evidence
that John gives for the reality of any genuine conversion, past or
present, is the believers relationship to the commandments that Christ
gave to His followers. You can know and do know right now, right this
second, that you are truly a believer or not. You can know this second
whether the experience or the professed "coming to the Lord"
in your past, was genuine or counterfeit or not, by the present
test of obedience to the commandments of Christ. This statement on
the part of John is absolute and unchanging, no matter how the tide
of the church changes, God's word on this issue is unchanging and
that is it. An individual's response to this bible is the central
key to whether a profession is real or counterfeit or not. There is
no mystery, no guesswork and no other discussion needs to be made
concerning the issue. God has already spoken about it and we need
to say what He said about it. If you today cannot see evidences in
your life of present obedience to the word of God, of the keeping
of the commandments of Christ as a habit of your life, of obedience
to the scriptures, then you are not a believer, God is not your Heavenly
Father, you are not saved, you are not going anywhere near Heaven,
but are in fact a child of the devil and are altogether in the darkness.
The genuine believer is careful to observe the commandments given
to him or her by Christ because it is the sole act that is clearly
stated that a believer truly loves the Savior or not. If a person's
so-called salvation experience was real in the past, it will be real
in the present and it will be real in the future.
This is the description
of the perfect tense that John uses in the second verb, we know,
in this verse, and that salvation will be evident by one's relationship
to the word
of God. End of discussion.
There are a many passages in the scriptures to support this clear
teaching with many from Jesus own lips. For example:
John 14:15
15 If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
John 14:21-23
21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves
Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will
love him, and will disclose Myself to him."
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, what then has happened
that You are going to disclose Yourself to us, and not to the world?"
23 Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will
keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him,
and make Our abode with him.
John 15:10,14
10 "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love;
just as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love.
14 "You are My friends, if you do what I command you.
John also throughout his letters makes it clear that it is characteristic
of genuine believers that they walk as a habit of life in the truth.
1st John 1:6
6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk
in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;
1st
John 3:18-19
18 Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue,
but in deed and truth.
19 We shall know by this that we are of the truth, and shall assure
our heart before Him,
2nd
John 1:4-6
4 I was very glad to find some of your children walking
in truth, just as we have received commandment to
do from the Father.
5 And now I ask you, lady, not as writing to you a new commandment,
but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one
another.
6 And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments.
This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning,
that you should walk in it.
3rd
John 1:1-4
1 The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.
2 Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in
good health, just as your soul prospers.
3 For I was very glad when brethren came and bore witness to your
truth, that is, how you are walking in truth.
4 I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking
in the truth.
Others have
stated the same truth.
1st
Kings 3:6
6 Then Solomon said, "Thou hast shown great lovingkindness
to Thy servant David my father, according as he walked before
Thee in truth and righteousness and uprightness of heart toward
Thee; and Thou hast reserved for him this great lovingkindness,
that Thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this
day.
Psalm
26:1-3
1 Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have walked in my integrity;
and I have trusted in the LORD without wavering.
2 Examine me, O LORD, and try me; test my mind and my heart.
3 For Thy lovingkindness is before my eyes, and I have walked
in Thy truth.
Psalm
86:11
11 Teach me Thy way, O LORD; I will walk in Thy truth;
Unite my heart to fear Thy name.
Isaiah
38:2-3
2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed
to the LORD,
3 and said, "Remember now, O LORD, I beseech Thee, how I have walked
before Thee in truth and with a whole heart, and
have done what is good in Thy sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
Galatians
2:11-14
11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his
face, because he stood condemned.
12 For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to
eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw
and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision.
13 And the rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result
that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy.
14 But when I saw that they were not straightforward (walking)
about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence
of all, "If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like
the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?
Go back to
1st John 2.
4 He that
saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar,
and the truth is not in him.
Here is the comparison
between those who say they are Christians and those
who truly are. You are not a Christian because you say
you are a Christian, you are a Christian because the evidence of it
is manifest in your lifestyle. Now, John speaks of the professor
of faith. He or she, is known by their constant affirmation
to others or to themselves that they truly have come to the reality
that they know Christ, that they absolutely know that they are in
a relationship with Christ through salvation, this is what they say
and this is what they tell others. The truth is, whatever they say
is strictly from their mouth and that's as far as it goes. They profess
their allegiance to Christ and that there is an ongoing relationship
with Him. Yet, the true and sole evidence that God clearly states
by His own word that a person has a relationship with Him, that is,
an ongoing obedience to the truth as a habit of life, is absent in
the professor of faith. Rather than being a child of God, as they
have affirmed to themselves and to others, God says, without hesitation
and without question, that this person is a liar, a deceiver, one
who speaks lies out of their mouth, they speak deliberate falsehoods.
Look back at John 14:24.
John 14:24
He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which
ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.
Luke 6:46
46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I
say?
(Why are
you calling Me, in the present, Master, Master, and you are not doing,
in the present what I have commanded you to do?)
What difference
does it make for you to keep calling Me Lord? What relevance is it
to you or of what value is it for you to tell others that I am the
Lord, and that I am your Lord while at the same time, disobeying what
I command you to do? What difference does that make to you, Why are
you doing this and for what reason? Do you think that by CALLING
Me Lord, Lord, that this means that you will escape eternal judgment?
Turn back to Matthew 7:21-23.
Matthew
7:21-23
21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord,
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that
doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord,
have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out
devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from
me, ye that work iniquity.
Professing to
know God or to walk in the fellowship or to be a believer in Christ
or to be a Christian or to be saved, EVEN with apparent
good works that could be labeled, "works of God" are
meaningless if we do not as a habit of life obey His word.
Go back to
1st John 2
5 But
whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected:
hereby know we that we are in him.
The person who
keeps His word, in the present, in that person truly the Love of God
has been made complete. Again, John uses the perfect tense signifying
an action that is viewed as having been completed in the past, once
and for all, not needing to be repeated. In simpler terms, the person
who is keeping His word is one who is saved and their past experience
or confession of salvation was genuine as well. By this one thing,
keeping His word, we have become acquainted with Him on a personal
level. Everything rises and falls by our relationship to the scriptures.
A person who loves the Lord is a genuine believer, and as a genuine
believer, he or she strives to know the word, and to keep the word.
Psalm 119:2-4
2 Blessed [are] they that keep his testimonies, [and that] seek
him with the whole heart.
3 They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways.
4 Thou hast commanded [us] to keep thy precepts diligently.
Luke 11:27-28
27 And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman
of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed [is]
the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked.
28 But he said, Yea rather, blessed [are] they that hear
the word of God, and keep it.
1st
Peter 1:22-23
22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through
the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, [see that ye] love
one another with a pure heart fervently:
23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible,
by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
Go back to
1st John 2
6 He that
saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he
walked.
Genuine salvation
is also seen as abiding in Christ. This expression, abide in Him,
describes a very close and intimate relationship. It is a walk of
life that mirrors the life of Christ Himself. Abiding in Christ means
that we go beyond a desire to want to be like Him, into
behavior that imitates Him. Salvation is not
to get Jesus to do for you what you want Him to do, it is to live
and to walk as He walked, implying complete submission to His will.
It is nothing short of total and complete dependency upon Christ.
The same expression, abide in Him, is used in John's gospel,
chapter 15:4-5. John uses this expression many times in this epistle
also. We will see that as we proceed throughout the study of this
epistle. Clearly the pattern and example is given for the believer's
life and that pattern is walking, as a habit of daily life, as He
walked. Now it doesn’t take an engineer to figure out what this
means. It means that you and I will conduct our life after His. Whatever
the scriptures reveal of the walk of Christ Jesus on Earth is to be
our pattern here on Earth. It's that simple.
- John
6:63-66: Walking as He walked means that one will walk WITH
Jesus, even though these false followers did not.
- John
8:12, 11:9-10: Walking as He walked means to FOLLOW
after Him as you walk in the light and not in the darkness.
- Romans
6:4: Walking as He walked means that you walk in newness
of life. The new life that salvation produces.
- Romans
8:1,4,14: Walking as He walked means that I walk in
the Holy Spirit.
- Ephesians
4:17-32: Walking as He walked means you stop
living like the unsaved.
- Ephesians
5:1-2: Walking as He walked means that you are an imitator
of God who walks in the love of Christ.
- Colossians
1:9-10: Walking as He walked means that you live a life
that pleases God.
Colossians
2:6-7: Walking as He walked means that we will walk
by faith in all of the provisions that He gave us at the moment
of salvation, growing to a place of spiritual maturity.
The life of the believer began by faith in Christ Jesus. All the provisions
that were needed to live the Christian life came right along with
salvation. To appropriate the provisions we need to understand that
they all come by faith and through Christ Jesus. The thought that
somehow our spiritual life is left to ourselves to operate and that
Jesus is not a willing and an active participant in our walk is ludicrous.
In fact, without Him, there is no Christian life in
which to speak of. We have salvation through Him, we have the provisions
to live the Christian life through Him. The work of God's grace in
our lives does not cease until we get to glory.
We are instructed
by Paul to:
