What Do You Know?

My little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you have heard from the beginning. (1 John 2:1-7)

When we say we know God, our lives—not just our words—must bear witness to that claim.

The Privilege and Foolishness of Preaching

For the last twenty years I've had the unique and blessed privilege every week to stand before groups like this and open the book of books to preach the Scriptures. I'm so grateful to do this work. There are times the thought goes through my mind that it does seem to be, as Paul called it to the Corinthians, "the foolishness of preaching." That's how the world saw it two thousand years ago, and there's a way some still see it. But we do this because we value the Scriptures as the inspiration of God, useful to bring about transformation, that God would make us more and more into the men and women He desires us to be.

A Shift in How the Church Sees the Bible

After two decades you begin to see trends in the church and culture in how people view the Word of God. Even the segments of American Christianity most committed to the Scriptures are experiencing a shift. There's a group within reformed Christianity that often refers to itself as Calvinists, and they describe their theology by the acronym TULIP: total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints.

I'm not going to teach all of TULIP today. Those who hold that position—and there are some in this church—are God-loving Christians who value the Scriptures, and I highly respect that, though I don't agree with total depravity, limited atonement, and that whole view of salvation. Over the last couple of decades there's been a resurgence of this Calvinistic view, especially in the seminaries that produce most of the pastors in our country. Those men write the books, commentaries, and podcasts, so whether you hold to TULIP or not, you're getting some of this through that lens—and I want to suggest it affects how we see the call God has for us as followers of Jesus, sometimes in an unhelpful way.

The Problem of "Total Inability"

The issue I'm observing is that the first letter in TULIP—total depravity, or total inability—has so taken root that many Christians now view themselves as necessarily unable, because of brokenness and depravity, to do what the Scriptures command. Now it's absolutely true that in our own strength we cannot meet God's righteous requirement expressed in the law. Paul says the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Jesus; by the law is the knowledge of sin. The right response to reading God's law is to realize you are a sinner, and that should drive us to Jesus, who is the propitiation for our sins.

This goes back to the reformed teaching of original sin. Through one man, Adam, sin entered the world, and death through sin, and it spread to all humanity—all the brokenness Victor Marx is dealing with in Syria, all we see on the nightly news. Because of the fall we can't live up to God's righteous requirement. That much the Calvinists teach rightly.

But here's the important inflection point. When we receive Jesus and confess our sin, "He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." When we receive Christ's righteousness by faith, Romans 6 and 7 say we are no longer slaves of sin but servants of righteousness. My concern is that out of a right desire to emphasize our inability to save ourselves and to exalt Christ's saving grace, some choose to see every command in Scripture merely as an ongoing reminder of that inability.

Over a Thousand Commands

There are over a thousand imperatives—commands—in the New Testament alone. Because of this total-inability teaching, some look at those commands and treat them only as an inducement to conviction: when the command comes, you feel how unable you are, you beg for mercy, but you never seek to walk it out. You never seek to live the obedient righteousness Christ calls us to. That is a real problem.

John was dealing with something similar. A teaching was growing in his day that flowered, about fifty years after he died, into full-blown Gnosticism. Its basic claim was that everything in this world is so fallen it cannot be transformed or redeemed; only your intellect can be saved through secret knowledge—gnosis—and eventually the body just needs to be obliterated. So people had shifted Christianity into spiritual-sounding platitudes—"we walk with Him," "we have fellowship with God," "we know Him"—while their lives did not match their words. John says you cannot just profess relationship with God and then live in unrighteousness.

In a similar way today, some say we are so unable to do anything righteous that we just need grace and must constantly confess sin—with no call to personal responsibility to walk in righteousness. Yet the New Testament is filled with exhortations and commands to take responsibility and live out the faith, as enabled by God.

Work Out Your Own Salvation

The conflict arises because the things these teachers say are true—but they don't go far enough into "now we need to live out our faith." Paul says it best in Philippians 2:12-13: "As you have always obeyed... work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." God gives us new desire and ability, but we have a responsibility, as enabled by the Spirit, to walk in obedience.

The author of Hebrews says the same in chapter 5: by this time you ought to be teachers, yet you still need milk and not solid food. "Solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Therefore... let us go on to perfection." When you begin to follow Jesus you are a baby in Christ, but you are to grow, to discern right from wrong, and to walk in it—not stay forever in a cycle of repentance and confession while continuing to practice lust, covetousness, and anger.

God Desires Our Increasing Maturity and Righteousness

That's point one: God desires our increasing maturity and righteousness. It's Mother's Day, and just like every mom here with her children, so it is with our Father in Heaven. First John calls us the children of God. Having saved us by grace and chosen us for adoption, He desires that we move on to maturity. His expectation for maturity does not diminish His grace or saving power; rather, by His grace and power He works in us. Paul told Titus that the grace of God teaches us to live righteously.

The people in John's day concluded they could never reform this fallen body, so they would simply succumb to the realities of the flesh and always practice sin while comforting themselves that their intellect was saved. That is a defeatist, condemning place to live, and God does not want us there. That's why John writes, "These things I write to you, so that you may not sin." And when we fail—as every one of us has this week and will today—"we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous," the propitiation for our sins.

A Test for Knowing God

Those being sucked into the false view objected, "But we have fellowship with God" (1:6) and "We know Him" (2:4). John says: fine, but God desires that those connected to Him walk in righteousness. So he gives a test: "Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. And he who says, 'I know Him,' and does not keep His commandments, is a liar."

That's point two: a desire for and commitment to obedience are the prime evidences of a connection with God. If there is no desire and no commitment to obedience, the claim "I know God" is invalidated. Actions speak louder than words. Does this mean the one who truly knows God lives in perfect practical righteousness all the time? No—our actions still show we are fallen. But there should be a desire to follow Him rightly, and when we are convicted of doing, thinking, or saying something contrary to His nature, that conviction is telling us His Spirit resides in us and is grieved. His Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, pushing us to seek His forgiving grace and His enabling power.

One commentator said knowing God is evidenced by our heartfelt desire to obey Him. The word John uses for "know" here speaks of experiential, relational knowledge; it reveals itself in present activity—namely the continuing reflex to obey God. This is a personal test we can run on ourselves: Do I know God? The best evidence is an increasing reflex to obey Him. Where the flesh once reflexively moved toward temptation—anger, lust, coveting—now, with the Spirit in us, the reflex progressively turns away from sin and toward God, because we are no longer slaves of sin but servants of righteousness.

The New Covenant Promise

This is exactly what God prophesied through the Old Testament prophets. Under the Old Covenant, you dealt with sin by offering a sacrifice and then tried to keep the law—but the law is spiritual and we are carnal, showing us how sinful we are. Under the New Covenant, God promised to deal with sin through the death of Christ and to give us enabling power to walk in righteousness.

Ezekiel 36:26-27: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you... and I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them." Jeremiah 31:31-34 likewise promises a new covenant: "I will put My law in their minds and write it on their hearts... they shall all know Me... for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."

To Know God Is to Keep His Commandments

That brings me to point three: to know God is to keep His commandments. I'll be candid—when I wrote that point this week I was personally challenged by it, and I even thought of tweaking it or taking it out. But the more I looked at the text, that's exactly what John is saying: to say "I know God" is to keep His commandments, out of love and gratitude for salvation.

Much modern "gospel-centered" preaching, shaped by total depravity, says you can't keep God's commandments and will always be a slave to your flesh, so thank God He's gracious. I thank God daily for His grace—I need it in abundance. But if we simply live in grace and keep walking in sin, Paul objects in all his letters, especially Romans: "Certainly not! God forbid!" For the Christian there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. God desires a people who walk in the Spirit.

Love Is the Prime Product of Obedience

John continues: "Whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him." And, "He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked." Point four: love is the prime product of obedience. Paul sums it up in Romans 13: "He who loves another has fulfilled the law... love is the fulfillment of the law." In Galatians 5 he says all the law is fulfilled in one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

So John writes to people being told they cannot follow God in obedience, and he objects—not with a new teaching: "Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning." What is it? Just a few pages over, in 2 John, he says: "This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it." The teaching infecting John's church said you cannot live in obedience; just save your intellect. Our day's version says you are totally unable, so you'll perpetually live needing grace—and that's okay. But Scripture says, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord, enabled by the Spirit, as an expression of love.

Love Is the Fruit God Desires to Produce

Point five: love is the fruit God desires to produce in our lives, because love is the fulfillment of the law. He who loves his neighbor will not do anything wicked to them. Galatians 5:22 says "the fruit of the Spirit is love"—and where that fruit is, it brings forth joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

The best way to bring this full circle is with Paul's exhortation in Colossians 3:12-14: "Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, bearing with one another, and forgiving one another... but above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection." As those God has loved, chosen, and adopted, we must put on these things—make a determined, willful change, just as you put on your clothing in the morning. Bear with one another; some of you are going to work tomorrow and there's someone you have to bear with—you laughed because you already pictured them. Forgive one another. Above all, put on love.

Put Off the Old, Put On the New

Putting on love means putting off some things. Ephesians 4 says put off the old man, put away lying, deceit, anger, malice, and wrath. Take an inventory right now: What characterizes my life today—meekness or malice, humility or arrogance, love or envy and strife? If it's the latter, by God's grace bring it to Him: "God, forgive me and cleanse me as I put this away, for I am no longer a slave to it. Clothe me in Your righteousness and Your love, and remind me by Your Spirit that when that person does the thing that makes me angry, my reflex would be tender mercy and grace, not wrath."

If you do that, you'll experience God's enabling power—and you'll likely face a test today, maybe as you reach for that jelly doughnut and a kid grabs it first. May there be the reflexive reminder of the Spirit who enables us to walk in righteousness. Christ died to deal with our sin, to justify us, but also to sanctify us, to make us more like Him.

Our culture looks at the church and says your beliefs and intellectual games don't seem to be transforming you or this world. But God wants to transform us, and through us transform our world. May we see a resurgence of that. It's happening in China—there are more Christians there today than in the United States—and in northern Iran, where there's a huge movement of people fleeing Islam to Christ. The greatest thing for Iran is not more sanctions, and the greatest move in China is not another ambassador; it is the Spirit and grace of God bringing transformation. May we see it happen here. Amen.

Closing Prayer

God, we thank You for a light Mother's Day message today. We thank You for Your Word, which is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, and we pray that You would cause Your Word to have a transforming effect in our lives. You do not want us to be ruled by pornography, by lust, by covetousness, by greed, by anger and malice, by fear and anxiety. You want us to be dominated by Your Spirit, transforming us in a way that brings love and joy and peace and gentleness and self-control and patience. God, work that work in us, for Your glory and for our greater joy—because there is no greater joy than to walk in the Spirit, in fellowship with You. Do that work, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.