Each week throughout 2021, I will share a Bible study blog post taking us through the letter of 1 John. Only five chapters long, this brief book is worthy of our consideration. Whether you drop in for one post or many, I pray that you enjoy them. Access all posts here.
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.
The First Claim
"Whoever says 'I know Him' but does not keep His commandments..." (4)
In 1 John 1, John ordered his writing by recording three claims. He started each with the phrase "if we say," followed by the claim (1:6, 8, 10). Here, in this passage, he does something similar. Three times John will write: "whoever says." Each claim is erroneous, necessitating apostolic intervention.
And this first claim is a contradiction. On the one hand, this person says, "I know Him." The knowledge that John knows is possible, this person says they have. They assert they are in a working, tangible, experiential relationship with the Living God. They walked around, acting as if they were in tune with Him, close to the Creator. Their speech was filled with spiritual jargon. They would talk freely of prayer and God's will.
But, on the other hand, their lifestyle could only be categorized as disobedient. Though they made claims to know God, they did not keep His commandments. Their boasting was betrayed by their conduct. They were not at all who they said they were because people who actually know God are so moved by His light and grace and truth and power and majesty that they obey Him. Though the journey is long and the path is arduous, they see no alternative. His beauty is enough for them. They must respond to His mercy with submission.
It isn't hard to imagine people who make this claim, however. Our world is filled with religious claimers who do not submit to God. Recently, a star athlete was accused of the repeated rape of a victim he met in college at a Bible study group. He may or may not be guilty of the rape -- the judicial system must run its course -- but he has already admitted to a consensual sexual relationship with a woman who was not his wife. He has claimed knowledge of God, but the lifestyle refutes such a claim.
And we are surrounded by this type of hypocrisy: musicians who praise God for Grammy awards for albums and songs filled with sexually explicit or violent content; actors who thank God for their third or fourth spouse; politicians who pronounce "God bless America" while overseeing the systematic slaughter of innocents in the womb; or worship leaders and pastors who sing and speak in spiritual tones, only to deny the Lord in the privacy of life.
But this duality is not found among those who've truly known God. John could not imagine it. For him, if the God who is light has shown on our darkness, though temptations will come, we will want to walk in His all-freeing light.
His Commandments. The Truth. His Word.
"But whoever keeps His word..." (5)
John gives the alternative: "But whoever keeps His word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in Him."
Here, when he spoke of being in Him, John used a more Pauline doctrine. Paul taught, time and time again, how a true believer is baptized by the Spirit into Christ at conversion. One with Jesus, our position is now so closely identified with Him. We are considered to be "in Christ." It's as if we died with Christ and were buried with Him so that we might experience resurrection life with Him forever, but also today (Romans 6:1-10). We are dead to sin and alive to God, just like Jesus (Romans 6:11).
So, in John's mind, the person in Jesus will have a symbiotic relationship with the word. The liar does not keep God's "commandments," and "the truth" is not in him. But the person with the love of God in him "keeps His word." Notice the designations John used for the will of God: commandments, the truth, and His word.
To be in Christ leads to a revolution of the mind. The light of God convinces the believer their old mindset was an error, and that it must be replaced with the mentality of God. Only God's view of things is seen as adequate for the navigation of human life and experience.
Imagine a captain at sea. He navigates and charts his journey, only to discover all his navigational equipment is broken. If he followed them, his course would be incorrect. He would have the wrong heading. What does he do? He looks to the stars, realizing they will give him the accurate measure of things.
The person in Christ realizes their own code of conduct, the one they designed through childhood, life experiences, others' teaching, and the world system is broken. It cannot help them navigate relationships, priorities, or truth. It cannot lead them to joy. They realize they need to borrow the truth, the commandments of God, His word. Only then will they find their way.
Love Perfected
"In him truly the love of God is perfected..." (5)
This person, John says, has the love of God perfected in them. Their obedience to God is evidence of the love of God. Truly, John said, it is perfected in them. But what does this mean? How is God's love perfected in them?
First, love is perfected when you realize His love for you. This causes you to want to obey Him completely. God gave everything for us. So when a believer looks at the cross and sees the ultimate sacrifice, they are motivated to respond with devotion and submission to Him. When we see His love perfectly displayed on the cross, when we really see it, we respond with obedience.
Second, love is perfected when you mature in your love for Him. It causes you to want to obey Him completely. In the first instance, your eyes are opened to His love, and you respond. Here, though, your walk with Him deepens your appreciation of Him. You become more "perfect" or "mature" in your love, which causes you to realize the importance of obedience.
Third, love is perfected when God's love flows through you to others. Here, a person realizes the radical love of God for the world and becomes a conduit for His grace.
The person who realizes God's love for them grows to love God and becomes a conduit for God's love to the world. This person " keeps His word" because love has driven them to do so.
What about you? Do you love God? Is it being perfected in you? Do you realize its power? Are you in deeper love with Him? Are you an instrument for His love?
John's test for knowing God is obedience. But that obedience, though expressed in thousands of ways in response to thousands of Scriptures, has one major application. Love. And this is what John will tell us about next week.
