How to know God
1 John 2:1-11
KV 1 John 2:3 “We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.”
Last Sunday we were reminded about the importance of having fellowship. John gave his personal testimony about Jesus, the word of life, so that his readers may have fellowship with him, with the father and the son Jesus Christ. Having fellowship with God means we come to know him and experience his presence in our lives. As a believer it should be our ultimate goal but sometimes we get lost on the way. In today’s passage we will see that there is a clear way to know him and experience his complete love. May God bless you through this message to establish or re-establish fellowship with Him.
Part 1 (Jesus, our defense verses 1-2)
In verses 1 and 2 we find the word “sin or sins” mentioned 4 times. Sin separates us from God. Adam and Eve enjoyed perfect fellowship with God until they sinned by disobeying God and eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This is one of the basic teachings of the Bible which every believer and most unbelievers know. However, when we look to know God more intimately and experience more of his love and goodness we are quick to overlook the problem of sin. We like to blame others or our situation. But the first thing we must do is solve our sin problem.
Let’s read verse 1a together. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. Many of us mistakenly believe that there is nothing we can do that will keep us from sinning. Sin seems inevitable and we must give into it. But if there was nothing we could do then John would have had to have found another purpose in writing this letter. Jesus would not have said to the 38 year paralytic to stop sinning if it were impossible.
After repenting and receiving Jesus as our savior our attitude toward sin should change. We now have Jesus and the holy spirit to help us struggle with our sin. But this passage gives us a very practical way of struggling to overcome our sins. Psalm 119:9 says “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.” This is the point John will make throughout this passage. Later we will find the ultimate way to overcome all of your stumbling blocks within you that cause you to sin is by loving your brother as Jesus commanded.
Now lets read verse 1b and 2 together “But if you do sin, we have one who speaks to the father in our defense – Jesus Christ the righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the entire world.” Not to sin is our intention as a believer but on the way to walking in the light we still in our weakness we often fail. We still live in a world full of temptations. The cold hard reality is that we still often sin. When we do we often feel ashamed, guilty, fatalistic and depressed. Sometimes we may even go so far as to doubt our salvation. We may still feel like we are under the power of sin. The only thing we can do at this moment is to believe that Jesus Christ speaks to the father in our defense, that he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins and come to him in repentance. God is holy and righteous; we cannot go to him directly because of our sin. But we have Jesus who speaks to the Father in our defense. When we were younger and helpless, our fathers and mothers often had to speak for us to make appointments and help get us out of trouble. We come to rely on them and trust them. The more we trust them the less time we waste in coming to them. I met many people who as soon as they get a traffic ticket they are on the phone calling their father to ask him for help. In the same way, when we do fail and sin we should come to Jesus by faith immediately because he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins. When we come to him and confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive us of our sins, purifying us from all unrighteousness and restoring our fellowship with God.
Part 2 (The way to know God, verses 3-11)
Verses 3-11 are talking about how believers have “fellowship” with God. God is invisible; it is often hard to really feel certain that we know him and are having real fellowship with him. Many people chat online with strangers and think they’ve become friends but when someone asks “do you really know this person?” they begin to question themselves. Such is the same way with many of us when we honestly talk about knowing God. Many Christians believe wrongly that we can study our way into a closer relationship with God. But last Monday, Professor Glass gave us a lecture and said some of his seminary students who study the Bible day and night told him “I have never been in the word so much but I’ve also never felt further from God.”
In this information age we are often tempted to want more information about God. Our faith in God often makes us look like fools to an unbelieving world. I’ve read several apologetics books but never after reading them do I feel any closer to God. I might feel better about facing the world with my faith but they never give me the joy in knowing God and improve my fellowship with God. Since knowledge is not the way, what is the way? Let’s read verse 3 together. “We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.” The key words or verbs in this sentence are “know and obey”. Here “know” is used to also mean “we can be certain”. There is a way we can know him and its by obeying his commands. If we go back to the beginning we discover that it was through disobedience that man lost fellowship with God. So it makes perfect sense that the only way to restore fellowship with God is through obedience. To obey means we have to follow the rules or directions set before us. Nobody can know how to drive correctly if they don’t obey the rules of the road. In the same way, we cannot expect to come to know God unless we obey his commands.
Look at verse 4. The man who says “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar and the truth is not in him. In this information age it can be quite embarrassing to admit you don’t know something. Msn Sarah Chang recently gave me a bag of rice to cook for my wife. She then asked me if I knew how to cook it and I had to hesitate for a minute before finally admitting I didn’t know. It was very embarrassing for me to admit. I would have much rather lied and said of course. Americans especially like to boast about what we know. If we know more than 10 words of another language we’ll say yeah I know that language. If we can cook more than 2 dishes we can say I know how to cook. If we can start a computer we can say I know something about computers. And if we’ve studied the bible or heard the gospel message we think we should say to others especially other Christians that we know Him. But what good can come out of lying and deceiving ourselves and others? They only leave us with a guilty feeling afterwards. John’s words here are not meant to leave us feeling defensive but to challenge and encourage us. Let’s now read verse 5 together. “But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him.” Here we learn that it is through obedience that God’s love is made complete in us. When we obey God’s commands there is real spiritual union between us and him.
When Abraham heard and obeyed just one command from God “To leave your country, your people and your father’s house and go to the land I will show you.” He came to know God intimately. When some servants obeyed Jesus by filling the jars to the brim at the wedding in Cana in John chapter 2 they could experience God’s glory and power and as a result put their faith in him. In both of these cases they didn’t know much if anything about God at the time. Abraham had no scripture and the servants had just met Jesus but by faith they trusted and obeyed God’s command. This shows us that God is willing to meet us wherever we are. Some people study the bible for years and years and never have real fellowship with the Father because they won’t obey. But another can study just 1 passage accept it and obey it and can give you the most heart moving testimony. I’m often shamed of myself when I see or hear about the Chinese Christians where many don’t have access to the Bible but yet they and their ministry is thriving because they obey the words God gives them. Shepherd Steve Haga was just a weird young atheist when he came to our center to study the Bible but was later raised up as a missionary to Taiwan. He said in his farewell testimony that the key to his spiritual growth was struggling to obey even though it often didn’t make any sense. Going further in our walk with God starts having an absolute attitude toward obeying whatever word you do have.
Though we know we should obey we all struggle. Why? I once heard someone say “Becoming my own person with my own set of rules is very important for me.” In this short sentence the word my or me was mentioned 3 times which indicates how self-centered the thinking is. We want to control our life, we want to trust our own reason rather than trusting any authority. Through this we get rid of the idea of absolute trust so we feel ok with our own way. But to know God we need to trust and obey. When we struggle to obey we can look up at the perfect example in Jesus.
Lets read verses 5b and 6 together. Ok lets go: "This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did." Jesus is the One we must follow. He is the standard by which we evaluate our Christian lives. How did Jesus walk? Jesus said in John 6:38: "For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me." The way Jesus lived His life was in utter and total dependence upon the leadership of the Father. He listened for the Father speaking, trusted what he said and obeyed to the point of death. His life was a life of fellowship with God. And so should ours be. Our life should be lived by spending time with God in prayer, careful study and absolute obedience to His word. This is how Jesus walked. If we would follow in His steps, then we must walk in the same way. It is in this way that we will know that we know Him. In the beginning of the year we all turned in our new year key verses and prayer topics to our fellowship leader. But now more than half of the year has passed and if you are like me you probably have forgotten which verse you received from God. But I pray you may be reminded again of your key verse, struggle to obey it and receive closer fellowship with God.
Part 3 (A new command, love your brother, verses 7-11)
There are more than 600 commands in the Bible. Which one is the greatest? According to Jesus the greatest commandments are to love God and love your neighbor. John tells us in verses 7 and 8 that he’s not writing a new command, that this command has been around since the beginning. Whenever something has been around since the beginning we should take note as it is the foundation. Leviticus 19:17-18 says “Do not hate your brother in your heart. Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.” It is our sinful human nature to want to put ourselves first. If someone causes us an inconvenience we take note of it. Recently my wife, who is the most sacrificial woman I know, gave birth to a very handsome and lovely little boy Nathanael. She said she had heard she would know more about love from having a child but she confessed that even after having a child that love is not a natural thing. He eats like a pig, is called a wolf in sheep’s clothing and has bad sleeping habits causing her much pain and suffering. She said she feels like nothing but a cow at times. To love in this type of situation is difficult even with your own children. Now lets read verse 8. Ok lets go. “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.” The reason this command was new was because of the new and dramatic illustration of divine love on the cross through Jesus. Before Jesus’ time we could say that nobody had ever experienced love the way Jesus showed throughout his life. Jesus humbled himself to come down to have fellowship with dirty sinners like you and I. Jesus washed disciples feet in order to show the full extent of his love. Before dying on the cross he said “Greater love has no man than this that he lay down his life for his friends.” Real love requires a sacrifice. Real love requires denying ourselves and doing something which we wouldn’t naturally want to do in order to help someone else.
One of the things that helped me the most to become a shepherd was seeing the sacrificial and loving lives of many of God’s servants. I was a young and a shaky bible student when I went to the Russian Summer Bible conference in 2002. I was part of a small house church ministry and I didn’t meet any other servants of God until this trip. But I was moved by the sacrificial lives of the missionaries there. M. Stephen Kim gave up his high paying job in Korea to go to Moscow where he survived eating only 1 potato a day. His sacrifice as well as others opened my heart to want to know and see Jesus who was made known in his life. People today have a hard time to love because they cannot sacrifice and they cannot forgive. But when Jesus was being sacrificed for the sins of the world he shouted “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” The life Jesus lived is the essence of love. When we come to realize the magnitude of Jesus’ love for us personally we are changed into new people. John 13:34-35 says “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” If you want to walk in the light, you must learn to love as Jesus did.
Let’s read verses 9 and 10 together. Ok let’s go “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light and there is nothing to make him stumble.” Notice in these verses that there is no middle ground. There is light or there is darkness. Sometimes we want to think well yeah I don’t really love my brother the way I should but I don’t really hate him either. He’s just my brother, I can put up with him. But putting up with him or enduring him is not loving him. If we want to walk in the light these verses show us that we must love our brother. What does it mean to love your brother? Practically speaking we can love our brother by serving, forgiving, helping to build our brother up by prayer and encouraging them to obey God’s words. None of us would be sitting here today without receiving love from our brother. I know I wanted to give up serving God many times because of my speech problem many times. But through the encouraging words and prayer of many brothers and the help of the Holy Spirit I could overcome this problem and actually stand here and deliver a message. It was not easy for them to endure
Whoever loves his brother lives in the light and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.” This verse gives me great hope as I hope it does to each of you. It shows us that there is a way to remove our stumbling blocks within us such as our pride, selfishness, laziness, lust and jealousy which prevent us from walking in the light and enjoying fellowship with God. It says when we love our brother there is nothing to make us stumble. How can loving our brother remove those stumbling blocks within us? First, when we look at all of these carefully we find they come about because we are focused on ourselves. Pride is the result of us putting ourselves high above others. Selfishness comes when we think we want and deserve more. Laziness is a result of our own fatalism. It’s hard to find any of these traits in a person who is loving his brother.
Colossians 3:14 says “and over all these virtues put on love, which binds them together in perfect unity.” Jesus said to love God and love your neighbor as yourself were the greatest commandments. 1 Corinithians teaches us that without love we are nothing. From these verses we learn that whether we walk in the light or not depends on whether we love our brother. When we love our brother we walk in the light and can overcome our stumbling blocks to sin. May God bless you to take to heart his command and decide to actively love one brother or sister.
From this passage I learned the way to know God and walk in his light is through living a life of obedience to his commands. It also happens to be the way to show the glory of God to others around us. When I obeyed God’s command to go to China to serve world mission I was blessed to know the real meaning of Christian life. Before going to YUST I really didn’t know what it meant to walk in the light. I thought walking in the light was leading a good bible study. I didn’t have much confidence to teach the Bible because it seemed my gift was not teaching. I was not a good talker and I didn’t have that much knowledge of the Bible. I thought to lead someone to Christ I had to teach them through my bible study. But I found the Bible study was only a secondary tool, the first was seeing my obedience to him in me. If they couldn’t see the truth in me or seeing me struggle to obey his word my being there and the knowledge of God that I had was useless as they would not come to the bible study. Walking in darkness is never desirable but walking in the light can not only lead us but others to know God. May God bless you to listen to his word and obey.
Let’s read the key verse. Verse
When obedience to God’s commands happens, what the world sees is the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 15, have not love we are nothing. Whether we live in the light depends on whether we love our brother.
Organize better. Follow what the bible tells us.
Sin – attitude toward God, doesn’t flow.
Jesus faithfully forgives our sin so we can continue to walk in the light with him.
If personal relationship with him, naturally want to obey him. First believe in Jesus, very happy to tell others and obey…feel more joyful. If we don’t obey him, do we truly love him? Holy spirit is in us after Jesus to help us love others and obey.
To obey is seen as a negative word in this generation. We are an individualistic society.
We are inundated with ourselves. We want to make our own rules.
Importance of obeying one word of God. Examples – Abraham. Disciples filled the jar to the brim.
If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciple, then you will know the truth and the truth shall set you free. John 8:31
In verses 3-6 the word “know” is mentioned 4 times. We live in the information age. Never before has the increase of knowledge been so rapid. Nowadays, if a person has a little bit of time on his hands he can learn about whatever he wants by just typing a few words and pressing the “Enter” key.
God is an invisible God, none of us have ever seen him so how can we know for certain that we know him? There are many ways
Heb 13…struggle with sin.
Avoid party places, deny themselves by singing hymns, look away,
Psalm 97:10 “Let those who love the Lord hate evil.”
2 Peter 2:20-22 “Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to the vomit.” And a “sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing place.”
The less you sin, the happier you are.
. Selfish people can overcome their sin of selfishness by serving others as the Bible teaches us. People who are jealous can overcome their jealousy by encouraging others and developing their talent. If you hate someone, start to pray for them.
In 1 John 1, John said “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us. And that fellowship is with the father and with his son, Jesus Christ.” He didn’t say so that you may share in the knowledge of God with us.
As bible teachers, we may be wandering what exactly we should teach our students? Should we only focus on explaining the Bible passage? In the great commission (Matthew 28:19,20), Jesus himself said to go and make disciples “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Notice he said teach them to obey everything, not obey some of the things I commanded you. People hate to obey. We are self-centered people, we want to believe that life is all about me. After the period of enlightenment, people began to trust in their own reason instead of any authority. How can we teach people to obey? The simple answer is that we must first obey ourselves. Our obedience to God is our best teaching and witnessing tool in this post modern generation. Many times I had to check myself to see if the truth were really in me or not.