“Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4, ESV)
Last week John told us that we know that we know Him. He went on to say that we know that we know Him by our experience in contrast to the “hidden knowledge” of the Gnostics. This week, we see that John tells us “Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,” (1 John 2:4, ESV) He starts out by saying “Whoever says ‘I know Him.’” (1)
We will see this is the first of three times in the next five verses 1st (v4) Anyone who says, “I know him,” — must be obedient 2nd (v6) Anyone who claims to abide in him — must live as Jesus lived. 3rd (v9) Anyone who claims to be in the light — must love his brother. (2)
You see, there are a great many people who say they “know Him” but do they really? Someone can make a profession of faith with God and yet, at the same time, by his life (conduct and behavior) show that he clearly doesn’t. Today let us recognize that you can’t separate conduct and belief. You will always end up acting out what you really believe.
If a person’s life does not show that they have been regenerated then they haven’t. “To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work. But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.” (Titus 1:15-2:1, ESV) (3)
John has also told us that “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8, ESV). And that “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” (1 John 1:6, ESV)
What is truth? The answer is God’s Word is truth. Jesus prays in John 17 “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” This passage from 1 John 2:4 refers to men not having the truth in them. Jesus tells us in John 15:5-7 “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (John 15:5-7, ESV)
Anyone who keeps the Word has life and anyone who rejects the Word dies. Whoever keeps His command- ments knows that he knows Him and whoever says “I know Him” but does not keep His commandments is a liar and this truth (God’s Word) does not abide in him.
John is continuing to work out the doctrine of assurance for those who are truly saved and continues to destroy the arguments of those who truly aren’t. The truth comes out by the fact of changed lives. Lives that want to worship God with everything they have. Lives that are lived out of gratitude for the fact that He has rescued us from destruction. These are not lives that do religious stuff out of obligation.
Jesus told a bunch of people who thought they could do good things (let their good outweigh their bad so to speak) and therefore make themselves right with God. To the whole town they lived in everyone thought they were really good people and did really good religious things but Jesus said “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44, ESV)
I know him [Egnoka auton] is one of those cheap sayings of the Gnostics who would jump up in the assembly and blurt them out. John shuts them up and busts their bubble with the addition “and keepeth not” [ho ma teron]. “The one who keeps on saying: ‘I have come to know him,’ and keeps on not keeping his commandments is a liar” [pseustes], just like Satan (John 8:44 and like I John 1:8, 10). There is a sword dropping, whip-cracking effect in John’s words. (4)
So we see that profession without obedience is a clear case for false assurance and therefore deception on the part of the person making the claim. A man who claims that I know Him but is consistently disobedient is a liar. “even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” (John 14:17, ESV) “We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” (1 John 4:6, ESV)
“Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”” (John 18:37, ESV) (cf. 1 John 2:21;3:19)
What does this verse tell us today? It tells us that anyone who claims to know God and, who consistently, does not continue on keeping His commandments is a liar and is proving that the truth of God’s Word is not in him. Today, the Lord wants us to be able to discern, as in John’s day, how to tell if people are truly God’s Children. He wants us to know we are His and the fact that He is working in us proves we belong to Him and we truly know Him.
This knowledge flows naturally from the promise of the new covenant in Jeremiah. When the new covenant is established (through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ), God will write his law upon the hearts of those who are his. Their hearts will be changed so that now they will obey. Therefore keeping the commandments is “not a condition” of knowing God “but a sign” that one does know God. (5)
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34, ESV)
(1) Walvoord, John F. ; Zuck, Roy B. ; Dallas Theological Seminary: The Bible Knowledge Commentary : An Exposition of the Scriptures. Wheaton, IL : Victor Books, 1983-c1985, S. 2:888
(2) Smalley, Stephen S.: Word Biblical Commentary : 1,2,3 John. Dallas : Word, Incorporated, 2002 (Word Biblical Commentary 51), S. 46
(3) McGee, J. Vernon: Thru the Bible Commentary: The Epistles (1 John). electronic ed. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1991 (Thru the Bible Commentary 56), S. 42
(4) Robertson, A.T.: Word Pictures in the New Testament. Oak Harbor : Logos Research Systems, 1997, S. 1 Jn 2:4
(5) Akin, Daniel L.: 1, 2, 3 John. electronic ed. Nashville : Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001, c2001 (Logos Library System; The New American Commentary 38), S. 91
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