1 John 2:3-6

Obedience and confidence.

It is a wonderful thing to know the Lord Jesus, especially given that He is the One who rescues us so completely from our burden of guilt. In fact, knowing God is the essence of eternal life. (John 17:3)

John’s readers were doubting whether the gospel had brought them fully home. Did the gnostics really know the true path to spiritual fulfillment and ultimate reality?

John was writing to dispel such doubts. In our passage he describes the effects that eternal life makes upon a believer. In this way his readers could recognize the power and blessing at work within them.

We grow in confidence that we know the Lord and have eternal life if we keep His commandments.

When we come to know the Lord we pass out of a state of being spiritually dead to a state of being permanently alive to spiritual reality. Old things have passed away and all things have become new. The Lord wakes us up to a discernment that some things are wrong and others are right. This discernment grows in its accuracy and leads to a life that pursues good.

The Lord loves us and fills us with love for Himself, so we seek to follow His direction for living and we seek to imitate Him.

Jesus taught in the upper room before the crucifixion that if we love Him we will keep His commandments. The first motivates the second. Seek His face to know Him more fully and expect that He will direct Your life into the way of peace.

In the upper room Jesus also used a vine and branches analogy to encourage us to abide with Him — that is, settle down and live with Him throughout all we do, relying on Him to infuse our lives with His gracious, enabling power.

As all of this grows to be an increasing part of our experience, it bolsters our confidence that we truly know him and in Him have eternal life.

Now in our passage John also deals with the faker who with pretense is claiming to know the Savior while leading John’s readers away from Jesus into oblivion. Such a person is a liar, because knowing the Lord and keeping His commandments are inseparable.

These false teachers were claiming Jesus as their own but then asserting that He was not God and that redemption comes through esoteric knowledge rather than through an atoning sacrifice. In this way this falsehood marked itself off as a lie.

John is not teaching that believers never sin, because in fact they do sin. But believers do not abandon what Jesus taught in the cavalier way that these false teachers abandon the Lord. And believers are not comfortable in their sin. Their spiritual life makes them aware, the Father disciplines them, and the Holy Sport convicts and leads them back to the right path.

What are the take-aways?

1. Allow the love of God to do its full work upon your heart.
2. Keep the commandments of Jesus, yielding to His direction for life.
3. Abide in Him, living with the Lord as a daily companion.
4. Imitate Him in the pattern of your life.

What is the resulting benefit? Growing confidence that all is well with your soul and that eternal life is your present possession.

Previous Scripture Notes

You can find notes that were published earlier on this page.

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