A number of years ago a young man became a Christian out of a life of moral squalor. He could hardly believe he could be forgiven. He had to be urged to trust the simple promises of God, which he learned quickly to do. Assurance was relatively easy. Several years later he abandoned Christ and returned to his life of moral degradation. What was to be said then? Was he still a believer? Was he just not “walking with the Lord”? Could he be classified as a “carnal Christian,” but still a Christian? Or a “backslidden” Christian? No. He was warned of presumption, of the problem of the rocky and weed infested soils in which spiritual life begins but is either rootless or is choked out (Mt 13:1ff).

There is a built-in tension between a Christian’s assurance and the false believer’s presumption that has not always been appreciated in popular Christian circles. On the one hand, the Bible teaches that “whosoever believes” in Christ shall be saved (Jn 3:16). Assurance is simple. We believe and so we are saved. Why complicate things? On the other hand, Jesus warns that many will say on the day of judgment “Lord, Lord.” They will speak of their religious service, even of miracles, and yet He will say, “I never knew you” (Mt 7:23). Self-deception is a danger, presumption masquerading as faith, a destructive possibility (Heb 10;26,27; Titus 1:16; Gal 5:21; 1 Cor 6:9,10).

In our passage the Apostle John says, “By this we know . . .” (2:3,5). He writes, on the one hand, of Christian certainty, confidence, assurance. On the other hand he warns “the one who says . . .,” and whose claim cannot be backed up by a life consistent with the claim. He warns of presumption. It is possible both not to be sure when you should be, and to be sure when you should not be. This pastoral reality forms the background to the verses of our passage. The Apostle John is concerned with exposing the corrupt teaching of the false prophets and false believers. Repeatedly he cites their false claims: “If we say . . . If we say . . . If we say” (1:6,8,10). He is also concerned with reassuring the faith of genuine believers who had been shaken by their errors.

True Christians walk in the light and are cleansed by the blood of Jesus (1:5-7). What does it mean to walk in the light? The Apostle John elaborates with a series of signs or marks of those who walk in the light. The first he identified was confession of sin (1:8–2:2). Now he goes on to say that the true Christian keeps the commandments of God. Those who have had a true knowledge of God will keep the word of God. John essentially says the same thing in three ways: 1) those who know God keep the commandments (3,4); 2) those who love God keep His word (5); and 3) those who abide in God walk as He walked (6). Whether one speaks of “knowing” God, or “loving” God, or “abiding” in Christ, the proof of one’s claim is obedience.

Knowing God (2:3,4)

Do we know God? The gnostic heretics said they did. Knowledge was a key concept for them. They claimed that through a mystical experience or vision they had received a knowledge of the divine. Salvation, they taught, was conveyed to those who were initiated into these mysteries. This was typical of the Greeks of the New Testament period. In the earlier classical Greek period philosophy or reason was thought to be the means to knowing God.1 In both cases, the knowledge remained speculative and unrelated to moral conduct. It was, says Marshall, “a purely religious attainment and had little, if any, connection with moral behavior.”2 John counters this saying,

And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. (1 Jn 2:3)

Notice the tenses of the verbs. We “know” (present) that we “have come to know” (perfect, indicating a “past experience which has continuing results,” says Marshall).3 In other words, here is a test today of our experience back then. “Here is the test by which we can make sure that we know him,” reads the NEB. Is our claim of knowledge legitimate? If it is, it can be demonstrated by obedience to the commands of God. We “keep (present, indicating habitual, characteristic behavior) His commandments.” Obedience is not a condition to be fulfilled before one may know God. Rather it is characteristic of those who do know God. One who truly knows God keeps the commandments of God.

We may examine our own religious experience by this test. Perhaps we’ve had a revivalistic experience. Perhaps we walked an aisle, or signed a card, or prayed a prayer; or perhaps ours was more of a traditionalist experience. Perhaps we completed a communicants’ class or a confirmation class or recited vows in front of a church; or perhaps ours was a mystical experience. We had a dream, or saw a vision, or spoke in tongues, or were slain in the spirit, or had an encounter while the sun was setting? Whatever our experience was back then, we can know now whether it was genuine or spurious by whether or not we “keep” (characteristically, typically, habitually) the commandments now. Do we mean perfectly? No, the present tense, we repeat, indicates one’s ordinary or regular conduct. Is obedience typical of us? If it is, then we can be sure that we truly do know God in Christ. If not, then we have no reason to think that we do.

Why is this? Because a true knowledge of God is never merely speculative or mental. It is not merely a matter of facts or information that can be intellectually mastered. The biblical sense of knowledge is living and dynamic. The word ginoskō (used 25 times in this epistle) indicates a personal encounter or personal relationship.4 It denotes experiential knowledge. To know, says Stott, is “not to have accurate information about Him merely, but to have become personally acquainted with Him.”5 John might have used another Greek word (oida) if he had wanted to indicate a more speculative or abstract knowledge, but he used ginoskō instead, to indicate truth experienced.

To know God means necessarily to have been changed by Him. One cannot know God without being radically effected. How could it not? Those who know God are born again and given new hearts. The Holy Spirit comes to dwell in them to strengthen them. They become new creatures in Christ (2 Cor 5:17). They have a new life (Rom 6:4). The fruit that inevitably and invariably grows from a true knowledge of God is obedience. “Godliness and holiness of life distinguish true faith from a fictitious and dead knowledge of God,” says Calvin.6

The Apostle John is not saying that we never sin. He has said already that only the self-deceived would make such a claim (1:8). Calvin said this verse is identifying not those who never sin, but “those who strive, according to the capacity of human infirmity, to form their life in obedience to God.”7 In other words, obedience is the aim, the goal, of our lives. Obedience is the desire of our heart. If so, we can be sure that our experience “back then,” whatever it was, was genuine, and that we truly are saved. If not, then read on.

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; (1 Jn 2:4)

The Apostle John seems to be quoting his opponents again (see 1:8). They claimed to know God, but they didn’t keep God’s commandments. Consequently he disqualifies their claim. There is absolutely no assurance in the Bible for the disobedient. We may go back to our initial experience of Christ. We came to know Him back then, and we say we still know Him now on the basis of that experience (again, this is what the perfect tense indicates), but we don’t “keep” (present tense) the commandments, habitually and characteristically. Then we are self-deceived and beyond. We are living a lie. It doesn’t’ matter if we walked an aisle, signed a card, or prayed a prayer. It doesn’t matter if we attended a communicants’ or confirmation class. It doesn’t matter if we had a vision or spoke in tongues, or were slain in the spirit. Without obedience we are making false claims. We are “liars.” There is no “truth” in us.8 “It is not the person who claims to be a Christian and to know God who is presumptuous,” says Stott, “but he whose claim is contradicted by conduct.”9

Loving God (2:5)

If we have answered the God question of how we know that we know, the Apostle John now leads us through the question of how we know that we love. He continues,

but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: (1 Jn 2:5)

Do I love God? That is a very hard question to answer. Love is so subjective. It is difficult to evaluate. Notice that the Apostle John makes our assessment easier by objectifying it. Love for God is to be evaluated in concrete forms. The apex, the supreme example or manifestation of love for God, is obedience to His word. “Whoever keeps” (present tense again) pointing to that which is typical and characteristic, “His word,” is the one in whom love for God has been realized. God’s “word,” a more inclusive word than “commandment,” indicates all that God has said, says Stott, “regarded as a single and complete revelation of His will.”10 It is the totality of biblical revelation that we are to keep. Then a somewhat surprising statement follows. I say surprising because one might have expected John to say, “In him the knowledge of God,” or, “in Him the truth of God,” “has truly been perfected,” that is, made “entire and mature.”11 Instead, he speaks of the love of God being perfected, or “made complete” (NIV). As John sometimes does, he says much the same thing as he had in verses 3 and 4, but from a different perspective, taking his argument a step further. The knowledge of God, or knowing God, becomes the love of God, or loving God. This answers, by the way, how we should understand the genitive, “of God.”12 Is he speaking of God’s love of us, or of our love of God? The parallel with knowledge in verse 3 would seem to indicate that he is speaking of our love for God, not God’s love for us.

How then is love for God manifested? Like the knowledge of God, it too is manifested in obedience. Perfected love is found in those who “keep His word.” “Obedience is the full flowering of our love for Him,” says Bruce.13 “If you love me,” Jesus said, “you will keep My commandments” (Jn 14:15; cf. 14:21,23; 15:10; 1 Jn 5:3). Do we love our heavenly Father? If we do, we are going to want to please Him. We will trust His judgment, believe His word, and follow His lead. When a child loves his father, he wants nothing more than to please him. We want our fathers to be proud of us. It is impossible to say we love God if we disregard what He says. As Stott says,

True love for God is expressed not in sentimental language or mystical experience but in moral obedience . . . the proof of love is loyalty.

Do we love God? The proof of our love is not “sentimental language,” as Stott says. It’s not in love songs to Jesus or flowery prayer language. Love for God in its purity, in its perfection, in its maturity, is manifested in obedience. Charles Colson’s Loving God, a book which I cannot too highly recommend, makes this very point.15 What does it mean to love God, he asks? Is it a matter of special feelings? Is it a matter of personal devotion? Colson’s answer, and the Bible’s, is quite simple: Loving God is a matter of obeying God. Love for God is not proven by fuzzy feelings. Love for God is not proven by emotional experiences. It is proven by the hard facts of obedience. Colson cites the example of Boris Kornfeld, a Jewish Russian doctor in the Soviet work camps who converted to Christ. Once he became a Christian he made two “blunders:” he quit signing health certificates which gave the authorities the legal basis to murder inmates by working them to death, and he turned in an orderly who stole food from the starving prisoners. In both cases his conscience would no longer allow him to tolerate that which everyone condoned, and which he himself had condoned. Though he knew it meant he, too, probably would be killed, he did it anyway, because he knew it was right. Late one night someone broke into his room and beat him to death. However, they did not do so before he had had the opportunity to witness of his faith in Christ to a young inmate with cancer of the intestines: Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

Obedience to God’s commands can be costly. It can mean financial loss, or a promotion denied. Obedience can be inconvenient. It can mean assuming the care for the needy, and commitments beyond that which many of our hedonistic countrymen will understand. It is much more “fun” to just please oneself on the Sabbath. It is much easier to abandon one’s elderly parents. It may be more satisfying to destroy an enemy, or to indulge a lust. One can seem to get ahead if one steals and lies, but, if we love God, we will bear the cross, and do what He says.

Abiding in Christ (2:5b,6)

We come now to John’s final statement.

. . . 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. (1 Jn 2:5b,6)

Most commentators take the end of verse 5 as prospective, looking ahead rather than looking back. Stott likens it to a door swinging on its hinge in both directions. As it looks forward, it continues to address the question of how we can confirm that we truly know God. How can I be sure? “By this we know,” he says, “that we are in Him.” To be “in Him” is the equivalent of “knowing” and “loving” Him. “The one who says he abides in Him” is another claim of the false teachers that the Apostle John is quoting. To “abide in Him” is the equivalent of being “in Him.” The word “abide” occurs ten times in this epistle and suggests, says Smalley, “an intensely personal knowledge of God.”16 It is to “live in” Christ. The present tense indicates a constant, deep experience of Christ. If this claim to know Christ is more than words, there will be evidence, and that evidence will be a “walk” that imitates His walk. One who truly abides in Christ “ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.” We will follow the example that Jesus set in washing the disciples feet (Jn 13:15), in obeying the commandments of God, in doing good, in self-sacrifice. Jesus said,

This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. (Jn 15:12)

Jesus lived to do the will of His Father (Jn 4:34; 5:30; 6:38). We will live for the same. We will sacrifice our desires and rights even as He did. He is our example of how to treat our enemies, our friends, our families. From Him we learn honesty, integrity, love for God, and love for man. Our walk must reflect His walk. We are to have the “attitude” that was in Christ Jesus (Phil 2:5). We are to “follow in His steps” (1 Pet 2:21). His sacrifice is a pattern for our own (1 Jn 3:16). “We cannot claim to abide in Him unless we behave like Him,” says Stott.17 “The test of our religious experience,” says Marshall, “is whether it produces a reflection of the life of Jesus in our daily life; if it fails this elementary test, it is false.”18 “The test for the reality of the experience of union with God in Christ is the imitation of Christ.”19

It is of great interest that our passage is so rich in the language of personal experience, particularly as that language relates to the false prophets. They claimed to “know God.” They would say, “I know the Lord.” They claimed to love God. They claimed to “abide” or live in and for and with Christ. Our day is one which is similarly fond of the language of personal relationship. It is common to hear the claim, “I have a personal relationship with Christ.” Relational language is perhaps the favorite way to describe saving faith: not the language of the cross, of repentance, of atonement, of faith and forgiveness, or even salvation. No, it’s the language of personal relationship. Undoubtedly true faith in Christ is personal faith and results in “knowledge of” and a personal walk with Christ. This is not at issue. What is troubling is the use in the first century and again today of this language disconnected from obedience and moral transformation.

Why has the language of personal experience become so popular? Probably because it seems to be beyond verification. We can confirm if people understand the cross, the atonement, or justification by faith, or whether they have repented of their sin and are born again. What we seem unable to verify is if they have a “personal relationship” with Christ, language, by the way, not found in the Bible. They say they do. Who can know? The Apostle John’s answer is, we can know by their obedience or lack thereof. If they know Christ, they will obey His commands. If they love God, they will keep His word. If they abide in Christ, they will walk as He walked.

Tragically there are people today mirroring those of the first century who have no intention of obeying God, and yet they think they are saved, or at least safe. They’ve had an experience. They have some knowledge. They love God. They say they abide in Christ. They’re Christians. They’re certainly not Muslims or Jews or Hindus, they’ll point out. So they must be Christians, yet, do they obey the commandments? Do they keep God’s word? Do they follow in Jesus’ steps?

We find this insistence upon personal experience resulting in obedience throughout the New Testament. Let’s return to Matthew 7.

Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.” (Mt 7:21-23)

What separates those who falsely say “Lord, Lord” from those who are genuine disciples of Christ? The latter “do the will of My Father,” the former “practice lawlessness.” Read the frightful verses in Hebrews:

For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. (Heb 10:26,27)

There is our word “knowledge” again. Some claim to have it. Yet they continue willfully to disobey. What can they expect? Judgment. Terrifying judgment. Fury. Fire.

There are people like those the Apostle Paul describes in Titus, who claim the name of Christian and are connected with the church, who

profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient, and worthless for any good deed. (Titus 1:16)

It is one thing to “profess” a knowledge of God. But our profession can be falsified by our deeds. Testimonies from the past are of little value unless there is obedience in the present. A sure mark of the true Christian is obedience to God’s “orders,” as one commentator calls them.20 No one can claim legitimately to be a Christian who is not living in obedience, whatever experience they have had. Again and again the New Testament warns those who are habitually and characteristically living in sin, that doom awaits them. Characterized by the deeds of the flesh? Whatever one’s experience, whatever one’s claim, the Apostle Paul warns “that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal 5:21).

Remember these warnings are addressed to people who identified themselves as Christians. The same is true of the warning to the so-called “carnal” Corinthians, who were tolerating incest and taking each other to court.

Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Cor 6:9,10)

The “unrighteous,” whatever they claim to believe, “shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” Again, he warns the Colossians,

Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is on account of these things that the wrath of God will come, (Col 3:5,6)

Are we taking God’s orders? Let’s be specific. Think through the Ten Commandments. Is obedience characteristic of us? Do we have other gods? Do we give attention to His worship? Do we take His name in vain? Do we hallow the Sabbath? Do we honor our parents? Do we murder, if not literally then mentally, through hatred, anger, and cursing? Do we commit adultery, or lust after those to whom we are not married? Do we steal or cheat? Do we lie? Do we covet, or are we envious and jealous of others and their possessions? Are these things characteristic of us? Are these things indulged? Does it matter to us? Or do we casually break God’s commandments as though it were a small thing to do?

The Schofield notes and others have done immeasurable mischief by spreading the idea that one can be a “Carnal Christian,” that is a Christian who goes on for years and years in apathy or disobedience, and yet still be a Christian. Only God knows the heart, and ultimately we are not to say. It is possible to backslide for a time. But there is no hope given in the Bible to anyone who habitually violates the commandments of God. A true knowledge of God is incompatible with such. It just cannot happen.

“By this we know.” “If we say . . .” Do I know if I am saved? God wants me to know. Is my knowledge assurance or presumption? There is a world of difference between the two, an eternal world of difference. Have I been born again? Am I indwelt by the Holy Spirit? The key to knowing is found in our behavior. If I am characterized by conformity to God’s commands, to walking as Christ walked, then I can be sure that my experience is valid. If I remain unchanged, walking in the ways of the world, then it cannot be valid. If we truly know love, and abide in Christ, we will keep His commandments.