1 John Part 2 (2:3-11)

Introduction

This is a brief study of the book of 1 John. In this study we will take a look at Chapter 2:3-11. I find that it is very helpful to know a little something about the early history of Christianity as well as other pertinent background information. These are included within the study where appropriate.

This study is part of a larger study called "Knowing Christianity." These series of studies is designed to familiarize you with Christianity so that you can more effectively share your faith with others and intelligently discuss Christian things with other Christians.

Verse 2:3

How can we be certain that we know God? John gives what seems to be a straightforward and simple answer. He says that we know God if we obey his commandments. Does this mean that if I follow the Ten Commandments and the rest of the law then I can say that I know God? No. That would be contrary to what Paul preached concerning the law (See Galatians 2:16). First we have to consider the meaning of the key word in this scripture, which I believe is the word "know."

The Greek word translated "know" here means "grasping the full reality and nature of an object under consideration." The word know also implies an understanding of or grasping of. Therefore, to know God implies that you understand His ways, He of great reality to you. It also implies closeness since fellowship is included here.

Obedience and Knowing God

We also must consider the implications of keeping God’s commandments and even what that means. Knowing God is not based on obedience but is demonstrated by obedience. Consider what Jesus said in John 14:15 and 15:10. If obedience were the basis of knowing God then the adherence to the law would be the mode of righteousness. However, the law cannot make us righteous.

Obedience and Trusting God

Consider this. Most people will do what their doctors tell them because they believe that the doctor knows what is best for them and is telling them something that will be beneficial of not life saving. Most people will do what they are told by their lawyer for example. They trust that the lawyer knows more about the legal aspects of the situation and is therefore looking out for their best interest. Why do we do what they say? We trust them! We obey these and others because we trust them. Why then should we obey God? We obey God because we trust Him. We believe that God loves us and looks out for us. We believe, or should believe, that God is on our side and what he says will be good for us. Therefore, we do what he says because we trust him and love him.

Love and Trusting God

So what does loving God have to do with trusting him. We must consider what it means to love God. Our definition of love is to have affection for someone, to be intimately concerned about a person’s well being, to personally care about someone, or to be infatuated by someone. However, this definition does not neatly transfer over to our relationship to God. For example, how can we be concerned for the well being of God? How can we care about God? Therefore, our love for God must be something else.

Our love for God is closely linked to our trust in God. Our love for God is based on the reality of Him in our own lives. To love God means that He is the most important thing in your life. To love God means that you are committed to doing His will. To love God means that you are committed to obey him. We love God because he first loved us. Our love for God is also out of response to his love for us. We cannot love on our own. The love for God that we have is powered by the love of God that is in us.

Review the article "To Love God" for more information about this.

Knowing God

Now we can say with a good degree of confidence that to know God is to obey God. We can’t say that we know God if we don’t do what he says, which implies trusting and loving Him. To know God is to love God, to trust God, and therefore, to obey God.

Verses 2:4-6

How can we discern if others know God? A hit can be found in what Jesus taught in Matthew 7:15-20. We can look at the fruits of a person. What does a person produce: life or death, good or evil? How does a person consistently conduct himself or herself: according to the world or according to God’s word? To keep God’s commandments can be understood as living your life according to God’s way.

Notice the correlation of the love of God and obeying him in verse 5. This follows our discussion above about obedience, trust, and the love of God. Also note that John correlates obeying God’s teaching with knowing Him. How can we know God’s teaching in order to obey them. John gives us the answer in verse six.

(1 John 2:6 NCV) Whoever says that he lives in God must live as Jesus lived.

Notice the phrase "lives in God." This is an implication of living a life bound by God’s way. It implies a life that is submissive to the will and way of God. This will and way is seen through the teachings and acts of Jesus Christ. Notice what Jesus Christ said in John 5:19, 8:28, 12:49-50.

The Importance of Jesus Christ

We therefore can’t know God apart from Jesus Christ. We have to know what Jesus taught and how Jesus lived. From that we can learn how to conduct our own life and therefore be pleasing to God. In the process of this we know God because we know and fashion our life after Jesus Christ. Again we see the importance of Jesus Christ not only to Christianity but also to knowing God the Father.

The New and Old Commandments—2:7-8

(1 John 2:7-8 NIV) Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. {8} Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

John states that he is not writing a new commandment but an old one. He then states that he really is writing a new commandment. What commandment is he referring to and how is it both old and new? John also states that they have heard the commandment from the beginning. What have they heard from the beginning and what was the beginning?

The context here suggests that the beginning was the beginning of their Christian experience. They have heard a commandment from the beginning of their Christian lives. It could also refer to the beginning of the preaching of the Gospel, which they heard.

The message they have heard is most likely a particular Christian teaching. What is that teaching? We will discuss that shortly. This command was also new in the sense that Jesus brought newness to the command. It passed from the Old Testament to the New. It moved or translated itself from the Hebrew religion, if you will, to the Christian faith. Therefore, it can be seen as a new commandment being that it was in a new realm or context—Christianity.

The Message Heard from the Beginning

From the context of the subject verses and other scriptures, it appears that the message, and thus the commandment, that John is referring to is the commandment of love. We are commanded to love each other as well as God. Review the following scriptures.

1 John 3:11, 4:21
2 John 1:5,6
Matthew 22:39-40
Leviticus 19:18

The Darkness is Passing Away

Refer to the Gospel according to Saint John, which states.

(John 1:4-5 NIV) In him was life, and that life was the light of men. {5} The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

The light has invaded the darkness and as we know from Revelations, the light will prevail. Therefore, the darkness is passing away and being overcome by the light, namely Christ.

One way that we can view this is to think of the light as the kingdom of God and the darkness as the Kingdom of evil or Satan. The kingdom of God will prevail and the Kingdom of Satan will pass away and is passing away.

Living In the Light—Verses 2:9-11

Two conditions cannot exist. You cannot live in the light and at the same time hate your brothers and sisters. Let’s discuss the terms hate and brother (sister).

Hating Brother and Sister

We cannot take the term brother or sister as literally since that does not involve Christianity at all, though that is a true statement. The backdrop of 1 John thus far deals with fellowship with God and with Christians. Therefore, we should apply the term brother and sister to the Christian faith meaning brothers and sisters in Christ. Just as your blood brother or sister is part of the same family, your brother and sister in Christ is also part of the same family. Therefore, a true born again believer will not hate those of the fellowship i.e., family members. We will love those of the fellowship of Christ—the true Church.

The word hate should not be taken to mean to simply dislike. It refers more to a lifestyle than an instance. There may be people that we really dislike and some we cannot stand to be near or even think about. However, those are simply emotional states that need to be resolved (it is not good to hate in this regard because it has adverse effects on us personally). The hate referred to here deals with your normal mode of operation, the type of person you are. A hateful person, relative to Christian brothers and sisters, cannot be a saved person.

Loving your Christian brothers and sisters is an indication of a saved or regenerated person. If you claim to be saved, live in the light, and yet hate your fellow Christian brothers and sisters then you are not regenerated and therefore not a Christian.

Blinded By the Darkness

John states in verse 2:11 that the darkness has blinded those who claim to walk in the light and yet hate their brothers and sisters in Christ. I perceive this to indicate a mode of deception. One cannot be saved in a definitive sense and not experience it or display it in the experiential sense. That is, you can’t be regenerated and at the same time your actions and lifestyle do not show it. An example of this principle can be found in the following scripture.

(Matthew 3:8 NCV) Do the things that show you really have changed your hearts and lives.

See also Acts 26:20; Galatians 5:22-26; and Ephesians 5:9-10.

The principle here is that those who are of Christ will do the things of Christ. Those who are of darkness will do the things pertaining to darkness or evil. The Spirit produces fruit and if that Spirit, the Spirit of God, is in you then you will produce fruits of that Spirit according those listed in Galatians 5:22-23. Those who do not have the Spirit of God and think they are redeemed are deceived and show forth their true nature by the fruit that comes from them. They do not the things that come from the Spirit of God, though a counterfeit may be evident. They do those things that come from the Spirit of this world, the spirit of darkness.

Lifestyle

Please note again that we are talking about a lifestyle and/or a mode of operation of a person. We are not referring to individual incidences in a person’s life. All have sin and come short of the full glory of God. We all will do things that are not consistent with the Spirit that is in us. However, our general mode of operation is that of the Spirit of God.

An overall view of a person’s life will reveal what spirit is on the inside. Jesus reveals a principle in Matthew 7:16-20 that shows us that a person can be known by what they produce. We can know what is in a person because what is in will come out (see Matthew 12:34-35).

Salvation Indicator

John seems to imply that the indicator of a person’s salvation is the love of the Christian brothers and sisters. This, of course is not an exclusive determinate or indicator since our perceptions of a person are not certain and there are other things that may be involved with a person’s behavior. However, the principle is a very good one. Whatever is in a person will come out. If the Spirit of God is in a person because of salvation then that person will tend to do those things that are consistent with that Spirit.

Walking in the Darkness

A person who is in the darkness is blinded if they think they are in the light. They are deceived. The only hope for these people is that the light would illuminate their understanding and they would come to that light.

I believe that God will not hide himself from a person to hold back the truth. I believe that if a person seeks God then he will reveal himself even to salvation. There are many people who were saved because they sought God out—not that they knew they were seeking God the Father revealed in the Bible. Some of these people were searching for the meaning of life, the truth God, happiness, etc. In the process, their seeking led them to the true God and therefore the Christian faith.

Walking in darkness is, in many cases, a religious state of deception or a personal state of denial. Religion may have people blinded from the truth by its many traditions and rules thus neglecting the word of God and the way to salvation (See Matthew 15:6). Personal denial of the truth is a state where a person does not want to admit that their life is leading them to death. This can also be a state where a person won’t receive the fact that they can’t save themselves (this is related to the religious deception).