Sermon Tone Analysis

*1 John 2:3-6*

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/3 //And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.//

//4 //Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,// //5 //but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected.

By this we may know that we are in him:// //6 //whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked./

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In this passage John returns to one of the most important themes of his book.

He told his readers that his longing for them is that they would enter into and enjoy fellowship with God just as he had (1 John 1:3).

But he also told his readers that fellowship with God is only possible in the realm of “light” which we said refers to the fact that God is holy and infinitely glorious, and therefore fellowship with God will always be impeded by the presence of sin.

The last two weeks we have seen how incredibly deceitful sin is and how desperately we need the provision of Christ because of our sins.

At the beginning of chapter two, John’s tone begins to sound more like an exhortation to his readers than a response to his opponents who made various false claims about the extent of sin in their lives.

And in this passage John wants to help his readers and us attain peace that we, sinners as we are, really do have fellowship with God.

If even those who clearly are not in fellowship with God can claim that they are, how can we be sure that we are not deceiving ourselves?

So John takes up the topic of assurance of salvation here for the first time.

It is one of the reasons why he wrote this letter in the first place (1 John 5:13).

I think we can understand what John is saying in this passage by noting these three things:

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There is no fellowship with God without obedience to his commandments (v. 3)

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Obedience to God’s commandments is impossible without God (vv.

4-5a)

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We obey God’s commandments by following Jesus (vv.

5b-6)

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There is no fellowship with God without obedience to his commandments (v. 3)

John says that there is a way that we can be assured of our fellowship with God.

And he wastes no time telling us what this test of our fellowship is.

We know that we are in fellowship with God if we keep his commandments.

Conversely, if we do not keep his commandments, any claim to know God is a lie.

!! John wants us to be assured of our fellowship with God

Plenty of Christians struggle with assurance of salvation.

Others do not struggle with it but should.

Jesus told us that at the final judgment there will be plenty of people who thought they knew God.

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/ *21* “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

*22* On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ *23* And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

/(Matt 7:21-23)

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“Knowledge” of God in the biblical sense is not intellectual and speculative, but experimental and dynamic.

Moreover, the context in which man’s knowledge of God becomes possible is not abstract, but historical.

In other words, to “know” God is not a matter of correct thought-processes, but of a genuine spiritual /relationship/.[1]

The idea of relationship is also suggested in that John says this is how to “know that we have come to know him.”

The grammar emphasizes the present state produced by a past action.

We know God now because we met him in the past.

It is important to note here that John is more interested in our present “knowing” of God than on some past religious experience with him.

He does not say, “This is how we know we know him, by remembering our conversion experience.”

He doesn’t even say that we will know that we know him by reflecting on our baptism.

What John wants us to be assured of is that we are in relationship with God /now/.

Assurance is to come, not from some action in the past, but from our present relationship with God.

!! Law-abiding is a way of knowing not a way of attaining

This text appears to give us a very objective way of knowing whether or not we have “come to know God.”

We know that we have come to know him “if we keep his commandments.”

In John’s day there were some teachings that were gaining popularity and that later became known as “Gnosticism.”

The Gnostics spoke a lot about a mystical experience with the divine and referred to such experiences as gnosis, the Greek word for knowledge.

But the Gnostics’ “knowledge” had little to do with moral behavior, and their teachings were denounced as heretical.

Unfortunately, much of their ideas still linger even today.

Even in the church we can encounter people who speak of knowing God solely by some religious experience without any attention to moral behavior.

The prophet Hosea argues that when there is no knowledge of God “/there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery/” (Hos 4: 2).

But John says to know God, or to be in fellowship with him, is to obey him.

We know that we are in relationship with God when he commands and we obey.

But this obedience is a way of /knowing/ not a way of /attaining/.

Our fellowship with God is proven by our obedience, but not gained by it.

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Obedience to God’s commandments is made possible by God himself (vv.

4-5a).

It is important for us to make that distinction lest someone think that he can enter into fellowship with God by moral effort.

This is a powerful temptation that we dare not ignore.

We never—never!—earn

our fellowship with God.

I am emphasizing this point because verses 4-5 contrast two different types of individuals.

Both claim to be in fellowship with God.

But one is a liar.

The other one has the truth in him.

The difference between the two individuals is that one of them keeps God’s commandments and thereby proves that he really is in fellowship with God.

Notice only two kinds of people are contrasted.

But isn’t there a third kind of person, the one who really doesn’t know him but still keeps the commandments?

There are plenty of non-Christians who are morally superior to some Christians.

Don’t they “keep the commandments”?

!! Keeping the Commandments

So the question we need to ask is this: How can it be true that the difference between the one who does not truly know God and the one who does is that the latter keeps the commandments?

Our answer to that question must begin by noting that “keeping the commandments” does not mean obeying the law of God perfectly.

That would be sinlessness, something John has already told us is impossible.

Even those of us who might be tempted to say that we do reasonably well at keeping God’s law have missed the point of the law itself: whoever keeps it all but fails in one point is accountable for all of it (James 2:10).

Our attempts at keeping the law always end in the same way: failure.

I think Revelation 3:3 helps us understand what is mean by “keeping” the commandments.

Speaking to the church in Sardis Jesus said:

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/“Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.

Remember, then, what you received and heard.

Keep it, and repent.

If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.”/

(Rev.

3:2-3)

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The church in Sardis was to “wake up, remember, and repent.”

In other words, Jesus implored them to not be careless about what he had said to them but to pay attention to his instructions.

What he wanted of this church was for them to quit ignoring what he said.

That’s what is meant by “keeping God’s commandments.”

It involves much more than external conformity to rules.

It refers to our paying attention to what God has said.

Just this week I read an article that gives a helpful illustration of what kind of “commandment keeping” God expects of those who are in a relationship with him.

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/Picture the husband and wife who keep talking past each other.

With growing frustration, one says, “Look, just tell me what you want me to do, and I’ll do it.

Be specific.

Don’t make me guess what you are looking for.”

The other responds, “No, I’m not going to tell you what to do.

I don’t just want your grudging compliance.

I want your heart.”/

/That’s the kind of talk that drives some of us crazy.

But it’s what we need.

Even God Himself doesn’t tell us exactly how to show our patience, self-control, and love for Him in the specific moments of our lives.