INTRODUCTION
Being in the presence of someone important or famous is the cause for joyful anxiety.
When we have the opportunity, we try to make the most of it. Charles Swindoll
tells the story having dinner with the Apollo 16 astronaut, General Charles M.
Duke. He writes, All of us in the room sat in rapt fascination as the man told
of the Apollo 16 mission to the moon, including some interesting tidbits related
to driving "Rover," the lunar vehicle, and his actually walking on the
surface. We were full of questions which General Duke patiently and carefully
answered one after another.
I asked, "Once you were there, weren't you
free to make your own decisions and carry out some of your own experiments . you
know, sort of do as you pleased-maybe stay a little longer if you liked?"
He smiled back, "Sure, Chuck, if we didn't want to return to earth!"
He then described the intricate plan, the exact and precise instructions, the
essential discipline, the instant obedience that was needed right down to the
split second. By the way, he said they had landed somewhat "heavy" when
they touched down on the moon. He was referring to their fuel supply. They had
plenty left. Guess how much. One minute. They landed with sixty seconds of fuel
remaining. Talk about being exact! I got the distinct impression that a rebel
doesn't fit inside a spacesuit. Whoever represents the United States in the space
program must have an unconditional respect for authority. That type of respect
for authority is required of every believer toward God. And unbridled revered
for divine instructions must be evident in every Christian. This is precisely
what our passage speaks of today. A test of the genuinness of our faith lies in
the extent to which we obey God. As we study our passage from 1 John, let us ask
ourselves the hard question, How can I know that I know God? That leads us to
a coupling of spiritual tests.
I. ONE TEST FOR
KNOWING GOD IS OBEDIENCE TO HIS COMMANDS.
I'm sure that all of
us have wondered about the answer to the question, How can I tell if I know God?
In verse three of our text, John the apostle gives us the answer. He writes, and
by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The
Greek verb is ginosko which means to understand, perceive, have knowledge of or
even to become acquainted with. It is a verb found in the perfect tense which
denotes a completed past action that affects the future. New Testament scholar
Huber Drumright writes that the perfect tense is the most important of the tenses
to understand in the New Testament. In this case, it denotes an action in past
time that has been completed and has produced a result. (Intro to N.T. Greek,
100). In our verse, John tells us that present obedience is an indicator of a
past confession. In other words, we show the genuineness of our faith by our actions.
Knowing God here does not just mean a head knowledge, but also a heart knowledge;
that you have an intimate relationship with the Almighty; one that has affected
your mind, will and emotions. It means that you are intimately acquainted with
him, like a child relates to a loving parent. We see this evidence in verse five.
But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. One of
the things that was ironic about the Docetic cult that infiltrated the church
in John's time, was that they claimed to have superior knowledge of God, yet they
lived lives contrary to the teaching of Scripture. For Docetists, everything in
the material universe was evil. The only thing that mattered was spiritual or
ethereal knowledge. In the Docetic line of thinking, one could do whatever he
wanted to with his body, as long as God had his mind. To answer this false premise,
John emphasizes the teaching that Jesus was God in the flesh and that obeying
God in the flesh is important for you and me. F.F. Bruce says it best when he
writes, On the practical level these new teachers claimed to have reached such
an advanced stage in spiritual experience that they were "beyond good and
evil." They maintained that they had no sin, not in the sense that they hand
attained moral perfection but in the sense that what might be sin for people at
a less mature stage of inner development was no longer sin for the completely
"spiritual" man. For him ethical distinctions had ceased to be relevant
(Bruce, 26). Any doctrine that outdates the timelessness of God's commands is
dangerous ground for you and me. We cannot take God's instructions lightly. He
does not call them the ten suggestions, but the Ten Commandments. We are to love
His instructions and thereby possess a life-ethic that honors Him. When we disobey
them, we always come out the loser.
Let me ask you a personal question this
morning. Do you base your relationship with him on cognitive speculation or on
a God-given faith that produces obedience? Are you just aware of a higher power
or do you revere His commands as protective instructions from the One who loves
you the most? Scripture plainly teaches that if you know Him, you'll obey Him.
It goes right along with what Jesus said shortly before He was to go to the cross.
He said, If you love Me, You will keep my commandments. One test for knowing God
is obedience to His commands. Obedience to those commands is crystallized, brought
into better focus when we look at how we ought to treat our fellow Christian and
neighbor. We next find that.
II. ANOTHER TEST FOR
KNOWING GOD IS LOVING YOUR NEIGHBOR.
Verse seven states, 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. 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. 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 in him to make him stumble. But whoever
hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does
not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.
On the one
hand, John says that this command is not new. It has been around since the beginning
of the gospel. Jesus would introduce the two most basic tenants of theology in
Matthew 22:36 when he was asked, Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in
the Law?" Jesus replied: "'love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest
commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All
the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." The simple commandments
to love God and love neighbor are found in Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18
respectively. The fundamental teaching of the Christian faith is that you love
God first and love others. Even among the ten that we read earlier, the first
four show love for God; the last six illustrate love for neighbor.
Unfortunately,
though, hatred sometimes creeps into our assembly. We all still deal with a sinful
nature, something that the New Testament calls, the old man. We discover that
we are not perfect people and that there is still something within us that despises
others that don't agree with us, don't treat us properly, or are different than
we are. It is interesting that hatred was something characteristic of the world
in John's day. This is why John says in 1 John 3:13, Do not be surprised, my brothers,
if the world hates you. But too often the line of demarcation between the church
and the world is not apparent. I ran across a quote not too long ago that illustrates
this. It said, The church is the only army that shoots its own wounded. I ask
you this morning, what would you do to dispel that statement? If you see someone
in need, would you approach that person and encourage him or her in some way?
Would you infringe on your routine a bit to boost someone whether it is through
a kind word, or a genuine interest? What are you doing to make this congregation
an atmosphere of Christ-like love? Or maybe you find yourself harboring resentment
toward a person or a group. Would you see the self-destruction in that and lay
it at the cross of Christ today? Would you give it to God and refuse to cater
to your sinful tendencies? We live in a world that craves the witness of people
in whom God has made a difference. One of the biggest differences is a heart changed
from hatred to love.
CONCLUSION
What I've shared with you today is nothing innovative. My sermon material has
not taught you anything new. But oh, how we need to hear of the importance of
obeying God and loving each other yet another time. Let these two instructions
guide your life. May they be your mottoes, even when you don't understand what
takes place around you. Regardless of your situation, you will never go wrong
with obeying God and showing Biblically informed love to others. God looks for
those who humbly follow Him without contingencies. There is a marvelous quote
shared by Sinclair Ferguson, longtime professor at nearby Westminster Seminary
and now a pastor in Scotland. He writes, here is an immensely important lesson
to learn as early as we can in the Christian life. Be obedient even when you do
not know where obedience may lead you. It will guard you and protect you. Always
trust God's word and live by his commands rather than by circumstances, providences
or opportunities alone. Only in obedience, in a trust which clings to the promise
that God is working everything together for those who love him, can there ever
be safety. For only in obedience can we discover the great joy of the will of
God (Discovering God's Will, 49).
