And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. – 1 John 2:3-6

A flight attendant told her pastor about the harrowing events of a recent flight. Severe weather required an emergency landing. She was responsible for preparing the cabin for a possible crash landing. The pastor asked how passengers reacted to these frightening events. “From my vantage point,” she answered, “It looked like they were making last-minute deals with God.” What where you doing?” the pastor asked. She replied, “I was thanking God I did not have to make any last-minute deals with God.”

Every Christian can and should face eternity with the assurance of salvation. This is the pastoral concern of 1 John. John writes to expose those who walk in a false presumption of salvation. 1 John 2:19 says, “They went out from us, but there were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.” 

Moreover, John writes to assure those who are born again to eternal life through faith in Christ. 1 John 5:13 says: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.”

John accomplishes his pastoral goal by presenting a series of tests of faith. 1 John 2:3-6 records the test of obedience. Billy Graham wrote: “Faith that saves has one distinguishing quality: saving faith is a faith that produces obedience; it is a faith that brings about a way of life.” This is the message of our text: Assurance of salvation is found in the life of obedience. 

1 John 2:3-6 gives three reasons Christians strive to pass the test of obedience. 

A Life of Obedience Brings Assurance

Verse 3 states the test of obedience in clear terms: “And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.” This statement emphasizes two wonderful realities about the salvation Christ provides. 

You can know God. God is knowable. God desires to be known. To be saved is to know God. John 17:3 says, “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” There is a difference between knowing God and knowing about God. 

Matthew 11:25-27 says, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” To know God is the trust the revelation of God in the Person and Word of the Lord Jesus Christ.             

   You can know that you know God. There are three types of people in the church. 

• There are saved people who have no assurance. 
• There are unsaved people who have false assurance. 
• There are saved people who have true assurance. 

How can you know that you know God? Verse 3 answers, “And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.” This clause is critical. “If” is a true condition: “Maybe you will, maybe you won’t. It’s up to you.” The verb “keep” is in the present tense that denotes continual actionor habitual activity. It is a lifestyle of obedience.

The plural “commandments” teaches obedience to God is not selective. Partial obedience is disobedience. John does not say you must obey to know God. He says obedience proves you know God. There is assurance in immediate, complete, and steadfast obedience. 

A Life of Obedience Produces Maturity

Verse 3 states the test of obedience in clear terms. Then verses 4-5 present the grades of one who fails the test and one who passes the test. 

The profession of one who fails the test. Verse 3: “Whoever says, “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” The verse begins with an all-important claim: “I know him.” This is the greatest claim a person can make. 

Jeremiah 9:23-24 says, “Thus says the Lord: Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

Just because a person claims to know God does not mean that person knows God. One’s profession of a saving knowledge of God can be false. How can you tell if a person’s claim to know God is phony?Verse 4 says a claim to know God is false if that person does not keep his commandments. This is a blatant contradiction. 

1 John 4:8 says God is love. As a loving God, God’s commandments are always in our best interest. 1 John 5:3 says: “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.” To live in disobedience to God is to assume your plans for your life are better than God’s. It is to assume you are more loving than God, which only reveals that you do not know God. 

Whoever says, “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. This is a damning conclusion. First, John writes the grade of the one who fails the test in positive terms: he is a “liar.” John is “the Apostle of love.” Yet this loving shepherd does not mince words when he must protect his sheep from wolves. 

1 John 1:8 says those who claim to have no sin lie. 1 John 1:10 says those who claim to have not sinned call God a liar. 1 John 2:3 says one who claims to know God but lives in disobedience is a liar. In John 8:44, Jesus says of Satan, “When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lives.” The one who claims to know God but lives in disobedience is a liar. 

• When he testifies, he testifies a lie. 
• When he prays, he prays a lie. 
• When he sings, he sings a lie. 

Every day he wakes up to live a lie. 

Then John writes the grade of the one who fails the test in negative terms: “and the truth is not in him.” In a sense, this is a restatement of the previous statement. This clause represents the essence of what it means to know God. To know God is to have the truth in you. Therefore, if you claim to know God but live in disobedience, you are a liar and the truth is not in you. If a person’s consistent behavior contradicts his spiritual profession, believe his behavior.

The practice of one who passes the test. Verse 5 says, “But whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected.” The one who fails the test claims one thing but lives another. He is a religious hypocrite. The one who passes the test need not make any big or bold profession. It is revealed in how one lives. He is one who “keeps his word.” The priority is the word of God. Assurance is not rooted in what we say, do, or feel. Scripture is the foundationof true assurance.

One can know that he knows God if one’s life aligns with the word of God. This is more than knowing the word of God. It is submission, devotion, and obedience to it. James 1:22 says, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” Hearing without doing is self-deception. Assurance comes to those who “keep” the word. The grammar denotes one who continually keeps it. A.T. Robertsonwrote: “Whoever keeps on keeping” it. John 8:31-32 says, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

If anyone keeps his word, “in him truly the love of God is perfected.” We typically associate the call to obedience with the holiness of God. Here John links it to the love of God. As you keep his word, the love of God is perfected in you. This does not mean the love of God for you grows the more obedient you are. 

• Nothing you do causes God to love you more. 
• Nothing you do causes God to love you less. 

God’s love is eternal, infinite, and unconditional. Obedience does not perfect God’s love in the sense that it causes his love for you to grow. The language means the love of God has a purpose. True love seeks the highest good of the one loved. This is how the love of God works. 

Romans 8:29 says, “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” The love of God works in and for us to conform us to the image of his Son. It is no mystical process. When we keep the word, the love of God is perfected in us. 

What does this look like in practical terms? 1 John 4:11-12 says, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”  

A Life of Obedience Imitates Christ

 1 John 2:5b-6 records the second way the text describes true assurance: 

• Verse 3 says, “By this we know that we have come to know him.”
• Verse 5 says, “By this we may know that we are in him.”

Knowing God is more than intellectual assent. It is spiritual union. Christians not only follow Christ; we are in him. As wonderful as that is, there is something more wonderful than being in Christ. You can know that you are in him! How can we know that we are in him?

Verses 5-6 says, “By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” He is another vital claim: “Whoever says he abides in him.”There is nothing wrong with making this claim. But your conduct should confirm your claim, not contradict it: “Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” 

“Walk” is a metaphor for one’s consistent conduct. As the term pictures motion, direction, and progress, it is an apt metaphor for one’s lifestyle. Ephesians 4:1 urges Christians to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” We should live in a way that honors the price Christ paid for us. 

We are to walk “in the same way in which he walked.” First and foremost, this is a statement about the character of Christ. Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” The obedience of Christ is our substitute and our standard. 

Christians do not walk according to the people, principles, and practices of the world. Christ is the pattern by which we should walk. Martin Luther said, “It is not Christ walking on the sea, but His ordinary walk, that we are called on here to imitate.” What was Christ’s ordinary walk? Philippians 2:7-8 says Christ “made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.” 

In the eleventh century, King Henry III of Bavaria grew tired of the pressures of being a monarch. He made application to Prior Richard at a local monastery, asking to be accepted as a contemplative and spend the rest of his life in the monastery. “Your Majesty,” said Prior Richard, “do you understand that the pledge here is one of obedience? That will be hard because you have been a king. “I understand,” said Henry. “The rest of my life, I will be obedient to you, as Christ leads you.” “Then I will tell you what to do,” said Prior Richard. “Go back to your throne and serve faithfully in the place where God has put you.” When King Henry died, a statement was written, “The king learned to rule by being obedient.”