February 5, 2014
I John 2:3-6
(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)
I am going to blog today on John’s Nose! Oops! I mean John’s Knows! You see, in I John there are five chapters and 110 verses. But in this short epistle, the word know is used 26 times in the Authorized Version; knoweth six times; knowing five times; and other words translating these two Greek words three times. So John’s Knows occur in 42 instances!
I mentioned there are two Greek words. They are closely related in meaning:
• ginosko – to know absolutely – used 13 times in I John.
• eido – to know, to see, to perceive – used 29 times.
Whatever word John uses, he wants his readers to know certain truths of which he is absolutely sure! So let’s consider John’s Nose! …I mean… John’s Knows!
Four times in four verses John used ‘know’ in I John 2:3 through 6:
Now by this we know that we know Him [Jesus Christ], if we keep His com-
mandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His command-
ments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word,
truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.
He who says he abides in Him ought himself also so to walk just as He walked.
John had just finished writing a powerful statement in the first two verses of chapter two:
My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin. And if
anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also
for the whole world.
Jesus died as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the whole world! What a tragedy that so many are not availing themselves of that propitiation! People go about in one way or another trying to establish their own righteousness – self-righteousness! And self-righteousness never works with God! When we believers sin – and John has already established the fact that we all sin, even as Christians (read I John 1:7 through 9) – Jesus blood immediately washes us clean when we confess to Him.
As Christians, we know Him. And what is the proof? “…we keep His commandments…”! And “…we know that we know…” by our obedience. If we don’t obey the Lord, we may say we know Him, but we are lying with no truth in us! Now this is hard! John lays it on the line – as James said in James 2:14 through 26 (see Monday’s blog) – “…that faith without works is dead…,” and cannot save you. Here is the problem: There are people who have really received Jesus Christ as Savior but have not grown up in Him in obedience to what He says. They are Christians – they will go to heaven – but you can’t tell by their lives whether they are believers or unbelievers! That’s tragic! …especially when we are commissioned to represent “the Light of the World ” (John 9:5) to those who are in spiritual darkness (I John 2:9 through 11)!
What are the commandments that we are to obey as Christians? Our Lord summed it up in what is called The Great Commandment in Mark 12:29 through 31:
The first of all the commandments is, “Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God, the
Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with
all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” This is the first
commandment. And the second, like it, is this: “You shall love your neighbor
as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.
Paul wrote in Romans 13:8 through 10:
Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has
fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,”
“You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false wit-
ness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, all are
summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
John summed it up beautifully in II John 1:5: “…not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning: that we love one another.”
Not new, yet old, yet new – as Jesus told His disciples in John 13:34 and 35:
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved
you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My
disciples, if you have love one for another.
So join with John’s Knows in proving your faith! “…we will know that we know…” the Lord Jesus Christ because “…we keep His commandments.” Let us love God and love each other! Jesus said the world will sit up and take notice if we do!