The Test of Obedience

We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

1 John 2:3-6

Introduction

We have been studying the first epistle of John, which was written to give believers great assurance of their salvation. Jesus Christ said, “I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly.” Because God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to die for his people, we now can have fellowship with God through the Son and enjoy eternal life in Christ. This epistle was written so that we may know the certainty of these truths in our own lives.

The passage under consideration in this study, 1 John 2:3-6, begins, “We know,” from the Greek word ginôskô, which means to know experientially. So John is saying, “We know experientially that we have come to know him.” The word for “have come to know,” egnôkamen, also from ginôskô, is in the perfect tense, which means “we have come to know him and continue to know him.”

If you study the Greek text of this passage, you will notice that the New International Version does not translate a couple of words, which is a failure on the part of the translators. The Greek text says, “And by this know him, that we have come to know him.” John uses the expression “by this” several times in this epistle. Whenever it appears, it is indicating a specific, practical test by which one can know something. So, if we want to read this verse correctly, we would say, “By this we know that we have come to know him . . .” And what is the test? “. . . if we obey his commands.” John is speaking about a test of obedience, in other words. Then John elaborates, “The man who says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him.” In other words, these are tests to see if people are authentic Christians or not. John concludes this passage, saying, “This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk exactly as Jesus walked.”

The Importance of Self-Examination

In this passage, then, we are dealing with assurance of salvation based on the moral test of obedience. As we study this text, we must apply this test to our own lives to see whether we are authentic Christians or mere professors. And if we examine ourselves in the light of this passage, we will of necessity come to one of three conclusions: First, that we are authentic Christians whose love for God is demonstrated in our obedience; or, second, that we are backslidden Christians who are not obeying God; or, third, that we are unbelievers and liars.

If, having examined ourselves, our conclusion is that we are authentic Christians, what should we do? We should praise God and obey him. What if we conclude that we are backslidden Christians? Then we must repent and begin to obey Jesus Christ. But what if we find ourselves outside the kingdom of God? Then we must repent, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and be saved.

Assurance of Salvation

How do we know that we are truly children of God? How do we know that we have eternal life? How do we know that we have fellowship with the Father and the Son? How do we know that we are on our way to heaven and not to hell? We must answer these questions in order to have assurance of salvation.

There are some people who would question if such assurance of salvation is possible for a Christian. Most certainly it is! Paul spoke of this assurance of salvation several times. In 2 Timothy 1:12 he wrote, “I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.” In 2 Timothy 4:8 he wrote, “Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day.” Paul also wrote to the Roman church, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life . . . nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). Thus, we can have this kind of assurance of salvation.

The Roman Catholic church officially denies that a believer can have assurance of salvation. The Council of Trent (1545-63) declared, “No one can know with a certainty of faith, which cannot be subject to error, that he has obtained the grace of God.” This council also wrote, “If anyone saith that a man who is born again and justified is bound of faith to believe that he is assuredly in the number of the predestinate: let him be anathema” (Anthony Hoekema, Saved by Grace [Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1989, 1994], 146). In other words, if you maintain that you are assured of your salvation, the Council of Trent pronounces a curse on you. The normal Christian life for members of the Roman Catholic church, according to the Council of Trent, is not to have any assurance of salvation.

The Reformers had a different view. John Calvin especially taught that not only is assurance of salvation possible, but it belongs to the essence of faith rather than being something additional to faith. In his Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin wrote, “No man is a believer, I say, except him who, leaning upon the assurance of his salvation, confidently triumphs over the devil and death” (Hoekema, p. 148). In other words, at the moment of death we can be so sure of our salvation that the devil and death itself will be overcome by this great assurance that we are children of God. So Calvin taught that assurance was an essential component of salvation

In 1 John 5:13 John says, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” He wrote in this way to refute the heretics of his day who claimed to have knowledge of God, fellowship with God and assurance of salvation. Their claims were false, and so John wrote his epistle to give some tests by which one can prove whether a claim is true or false.

We find a similar situation in modern times. Much modern preaching promotes a Christianity that is cut off from ethical obedience to Jesus Christ. Perhaps you have heard the caricature of Christianity which says you can receive Jesus into your life, but you do not have to make him Lord. Usually there is the illustration of a throne where you are sitting, showing that you are still running your life. Such people will say that Jesus Christ is somewhere in the circle of your life, as your Savior, and that some day you may decide to get off the throne and allow Jesus to sit on it, which is called making him Lord. But these people would say that whether you make him Lord or not, you are on your way to heaven because you have accepted him as your Savior. There is only one problem with this type of modern preaching: It promotes an antinomian Christianity that will fail the moral tests that John gives us in this epistle.

The Moral Test of Obedience

The test John gives us in this passage is a moral test, a test of obedience to our God. John writes, “And by this we know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.” This is the normal Christian life. Later, in 1 John 5:3, John writes, “And we know his commandments are not burdensome,” which echoes Jesus’ own words in Matthew 11:30: “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Anyone can make a claim and confess Christ. Anyone can say, “Lord, Lord,” or “I am a Christian.” In fact, John addresses this issue in 1 John 2:4 where he writes, “The man who says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” And in 1 John 1: 6, 8, and 10 we find this phrase repeated: “If we claim,” “If we claim,” “If we claim.”

It is easy to claim to be a Christian but every such claim must be tested by an objective test. In this passage the apostle John gives us just such a test. What is the test? That the claimant’s life must conform to the moral code of the Holy Scriptures. “By this moral test we know,” John writes, “that we have come to know him.”

The ancient Gnostics, who were antinomian intellectuals, claimed knowledge of God, yet, to them, a sinful life was no barrier to fellowship with God. John opposed the Gnostics and their teachings, so the test he gives here is whether or not the professing Christian obeys the commandments of God.

A person who claims to be a Christian yet does not obey the will of God is a liar. Then John adds, “there is no truth in him,” meaning there is no Christ and no Holy Spirit in such a person. Such a person is without God and without hope. Such a person is not in the kingdom of God. Such a person has no life of God in his soul; he is like his father, the devil, and therefore he lies. A true child of God must be like God the Father. Thus, he will speak the truth and perform the truth.

In 1 John 4:20 we read, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar.” In Titus 1:16 Paul also speaks of false professors, saying, “They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him.” Then he describes such people: “They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.”

In Hosea 4:1 the prophet complained that there was no knowledge of God in the land. Because everywhere he looked, he saw lying, murder, stealing, and adultery going on in the land. Whatever claim we make, we cannot have true knowledge of God while we are lying, stealing, committing adultery, and murdering others, because knowledge of the true God has moral consequences. If our god is the devil, we will live like the devil, but if our God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we will live in conformity with the life of Christ.

We Must Know God

The second point, then, that we want to examine is what it means to know God. John writes, “By this we know that we have come to know him.” What does it mean to know God?

Knowledge of God in the sense John is writing about does not mean knowing about God. There is a vast difference between knowing theology and knowing God. Many theologians know much about God but do not know the triune God.

Knowing God is knowing a person. It is having a personal, vital intimate, growing, loving relationship with the true and living God. This relationship is the most satisfying relationship for a human being. It is present enjoyment of eternal life and it will continue after we die. It is being able to converse with God and have God speak to us.

In John 17:3 Jesus says, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God. . . .” Jesus is not speaking about studying theology; he is speaking about knowing the true and only God. But how can we know him? Through Jesus Christ, his Son. So Jesus adds, “and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” Jesus Christ is the one who reveals the Father to us; no one can come to the Father except through him.

But before we can talk about knowing God, we must consider biblical anthropology. What does the Bible say about the condition of man? It tells us that man is a fallen creature, an enemy of God in his mind. He is an ungodly, wicked sinner who hates God and his law. Because his nature is sinful, he can only sin continually. Dead in trespasses and sins, he is like a worm in a sewer. He is wicked in his mind, will, and affections. He suppresses truth and exchanges truth for a lie. Although he was created as a creature of light, fallen man now hates light and loves darkness. Through the fall of Adam, man became a nocturnal being, so to speak. It is impossible for such a man to know God truly and love him.

How, then, can such a sinful man know God? God must first raise him from the dead. He must regenerate him and give him a new heart, removing the heart of stone and giving him a new nature. We read about this prior, spiritual, supernatural, miraculous, divine work of regenerating us and giving us a new nature in Jeremiah 31:31-34. There we read that God himself will write his law in this new heart, which is called divine nature.

When God does these things, the regenerated man will look upon God and his law with great delight. “They will all know me,” God tells us. If a man is born of God, then he will be alive toward God. Such a man knows God, loves God, and delights to do God’s will. This is the difference between knowing about God and knowing God.

Keeping God’s Commandments

So John tells us, “We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.” The third point is the moral test of keeping his commandments. Notice, when John speaks about the moral test of keeping God’s commandments, he is not speaking about perfection. No human being in this life can keep the commandments of God at any time perfectly. However, when we become Christians, our basic direction is changed. Instead of hating God, we love God and obey him more and more.

A person who has been raised from the dead will now keep God’s commandments because he has new life in him. What are these commandments of God in which he takes delight? They are found in the law of God, which, we are told, is holy, good, and spiritual. God’s law is the expression of God’s divine nature. When a person is born again, God gives him divine nature. When that happens, he automatically loves the word of God. In other words, because God’s children have been given divine nature, they will manifest God’s character, and therefore, necessarily, they will delight in the will of God as expressed in the moral code of the Holy Scriptures. They will seek to please God in every aspect of their lives.

We can find this idea in several places in the Scriptures. In Ephesians 2 we read that, although we were dead in trespasses and sins, God made us alive with Christ and seated us in the heavenly realms with him. In verse 10 we are told the purpose of this great salvation: “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” So Paul is not telling us to do away with good works. On the contrary, because we are under grace, not under the law, we are to obey God even more.

In the great commission of Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus told his followers, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing people in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” We cannot be disciples if we fail to obey what God has commanded us in his Holy Scriptures.

Paul spoke of the idea of salvation resulting in obedience when he spoke of the purpose of his apostolic calling. PGM In Romans 1:5 he writes, “Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from the faith.” Paul was commissioned to call people to “the obedience that comes from the faith.”

If sin is disobedience to God and transgression of his law, salvation will result in our doing the law of God. In John 14:15 Jesus told his disciples, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” In Matthew 7:17 he said, “Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.” By a miracle God made us into good trees to produce good fruit. And in verse 17 Jesus added, “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit.”

The deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt is a symbol of our deliverance from the kingdom of Satan. In Deuteronomy 10:12-13 God tells his people, as those who have been redeemed from the slavery of Egypt, what his will and purpose for them is. There we read,

And now, O Israel, what does the Lord God ask of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?

It is utterly impossible to know God without loving him and keeping his commandments. Yes, obedience to his commandments is not the condition of our knowing God, but it is the crucial evidence that we do know him.

Living in God

In 1 John 2:6 John makes his fourth point. He writes, “Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” Not only do we know God, but we are in God. God is our home, our dwelling place. In him we live and move and have our being.

Here John is speaking about our vital, inseparable union with God in Jesus Christ. In 1 John 3:24 John gives us a definition of what it means to abide in God. He begins, “Those who obey his commands live in him and he in them.” If you are obedient to God’s commands, you can draw the conclusion that you know him. But more than that, you can also know that you live in God. That also should give you great security! John continues, “And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.”

Jesus spoke about this vital union with him in the gospel of John, which I believe John wrote before his epistles and which these Ephesian Christians did have. In John 15:1-10 Jesus said,

I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

What is the evidence of our vital union with the vine, Jesus Christ? Fruitlessness? No! If we are vitally united to Jesus Christ by saving faith, then there will be fruit, more fruit, much fruit, for the glory of God the Father.

What is this fruit? Again, it is obedience to God’s commandments. The fruit of obedience is the evidence that a branch is vitally united to the vine, Jesus Christ, who is our life. Thus, if we see a branch with no fruit, we can make the simple deduction that there is no union. Such branches are not vitally and savingly united to Jesus Christ. They may make professions, but they are not in Christ. And Jesus tells us that every branch that does not bear fruit will be destroyed.

In Matthew 7:21 Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Many people will come to Christ and say, “Lord, Lord,” but they are false professors. There is no fruit of obedience in their lives. The Lord tells such people, “Depart from me,” or “Go to hell,” in other words.

Walking as Jesus Walked

The fifth point that John makes is that if we do profess to know Christ and live in him, we must pass another test: We must necessarily walk as Jesus did in history. Jesus is our example, and to please God we must walk exactly as he walked. No one in the history of the world knew how to live to please God until Jesus demonstrated it. Jesus is the model for us of how to live in the midst of this world of temptation, evil, sin, and trouble for the glory of God.

Throughout the Bible God commands his people to walk with him. We are told in Genesis 5:24 that “Enoch walked with God,” and elsewhere we read that Noah also walked with God. When God made the covenant of circumcision with Abraham, he told him, “Walk before me and be blameless.” Throughout his epistles the apostle Paul exhorts us, saying, “Walk in faith,” “Walk in the Spirit,” “Walk in love,” “Walk in wisdom,” “Walk in light,” and so on. But how can we walk with God? By walking exactly as Jesus walked.

How, then, did Jesus walk in this world of temptation? He obeyed his Father always. Jesus himself was tempted, we are told, but he resisted Satan, telling him, “It is written.” In other words, Jesus told the devil, “I am subject to the word of God; therefore, I will not do what you are asking me to do.” Later on, as he faced the cross, he prayed to his Father in heaven, “Not my will but thine be done.”

The purpose of Jesus’ life was to glorify his Father and enjoy him forever, and he did so by obeying God. In John 8:29 he said, “The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.” Jesus always did what pleased his Father, and that is also how we should live. And the knowledge of what pleases God is revealed to us in the Bible.

In many places in the Scriptures we are told that we must imitate Jesus Christ. In John 13:15 Jesus himself said, “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” In John 8:12 Jesus declared, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

In 1 Peter 2:21 the apostle writes, “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps.” Christ is our example. In Hebrews 12:2-3 we read,

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

In Romans 15:1-3 Paul also tells us that Jesus Christ lived to please God, not himself:

We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For even Christ did not please himself, but as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.”

The test we must apply to ourselves, then, is the test of obedience. If we claim that we know Christ and are dwelling in vital union with God, then we must also keep God’s commandments.

The Basis of Our Assurance

In conclusion, let me ask you: What is the basis of your assurance? Some people think it is mysticism. They think people have to experience certain phenomena or have some direct contact with God. They speak about being caught up in the third heaven where they see and hear wonderful things, having visions and thrills, being touched by an angel, experiencing certain physical sensations, observing balls of fire, and so on.

If mysticism is the basis of your assurance, I want to surprise you by saying that John, who is known as a mystic, does not give us a test using mystical experience. In this epistle, he is right down to earth, and the test he gives is whether or not we keep God’s commandments. The apostle John clearly tells us that the person who will be filled to overflowing with the love of God is the person who faithfully does the ordinary duties that God has revealed to him in his law.

In his commentary on First John, Dr. John Stott gives an example of what John is talking about. One day a couple came to share something with Dr. Stott. This couple was not married, but when they were praying about their situation, they experienced some sensation, some feeling, which they interpreted as God telling them it was all right for them to live together without the benefit of marriage. The only problem with their interpretation is that the Bible tells us it is not right to live together outside of marriage. What about the feeling they experienced? Let me assure you, if you are trying to circumvent the Book, you may have all kinds of funny sensations, but they are not from God. Feelings that cause us to contradict the word of God are called demon activity.

Evidence of Salvation

What, then, is the evidence that we are born of God, know God, dwell in God, and that the love of God is poured into us so that it overflows in our lives? It is walking daily in obedience to God’s word. It is forgiving as God has forgiven us. It is providing for our families and so on. Yes, that involves sweat, but spirituality is attached to sweat. If we are husbands, it is loving our wives, not according to our own standard, but as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. If we are wives, it is submitting and respecting those husbands whom God has placed over us. If we are children, it is honoring and obeying our parents in everything.

What else demonstrates that we are children of God? It is praying without ceasing and studying the word of God diligently and daily. It is being faithful not to neglect the gathering together of the saints, as the habit of some is, but, rather, joyfully and faithfully coming to worship in the house of the Lord. It is showing our love for our brothers by laying down our lives for them, as our Lord Jesus Christ did, even though we are not doing it in a messianic way. It is refusing to love the world, in the sense that we refuse to seek joy through material possessions. It is showing love to the world by sharing the gospel with others.

Jesus tells us we are the light of the world and the salt of the earth. If we are vitally united with Jesus Christ, there will be obedience. And if we live in this way, we will experience great assurance of salvation. In John 14:21, 23, 24 Jesus tells us, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him. . . . If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”

Do you want assurance? As Paul wrote in Romans 8:16-17, “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs-heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. . . .” No wonder Paul could declare with great assurance, “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep me for that day.”

Do You Have Assurance of Salvation?

In 2 Peter 1:10 Peter exhorts us, “Be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure.” To be deluded on this subject is the most serious mistake we can make in this life. In Matthew 7 we read about some who came to Jesus at the end, calling out, “Lord, Lord,” and speaking about, not their obedience in ordinary duties, but about their ability to perform miracles, cast out demons and prophesy. These people thought they were qualified for heaven, but what did Jesus tell them? “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” (Matt. 7:23).

Why is this moral test of supreme importance? Because our assurance is not based on charismata, but on simple obedience to the transcript of God’s nature, which is his law. Therefore, if God has enabled you to know him, I urge you to obey him. Knowledge is first, but then there is obedience, which will, in turn, bring us to greater knowledge of God. Amen.